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FROM   THE  LIBRARY   OF 
REV.   LOUIS    FITZGERALD    BENSON,  D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED   BY   HIM   TO 

THE   LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


LJ/xr 


> 


THE    EVE    OF 

THE    REFORMATION 


FRANCIS  AIDAN  GASQUET,  D.D.,  O.S.B. 


,  JAN  ?a-  1932  ' 


THE   EVE   OF   THE 
REFORMATION 


STUDIES  IN  THE 
RELIGIOUS  LIFE   AND  THOUGHT  OF   THE   ENGLISH 
PEOPLE   IN  THE   PERIOD   PRECEDING  THE 
REJECTION  OF   THE   ROMAN  JURIS- 
DICTION  BY   HENRY   VIII 


FRANCIS  AIDAN  GASQUET,  D.D.,  O.S.B. 

AUTHOR    OF 
"  HENRY    Vni.     AND    THE    ENGLISH    MONASTERIES,"    ETC. 


NEW  YORK  :   G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
LONDON:  JOHN  C.  NIMMO 

M  D  CCC  C 


Printed  by 

Ballantyne,  Hanson  fir*  Co. 

Edinburgh 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. 

I.  INTRODUCTION  .... 

II.  THE    REVIVAL    OF    LETTERS    IN     ENGLAND 

III.  THE   TWO   JURISDICTIONS   . 

IV.  ENGLAND    AND   THE   POPE 
V.  CLERGY   AND    LAITY 

VI.  ERASMUS 

VII.  THE    LUTHERAN    INVASION 

VIII.  THE    PRINTED    ENGLISH    BIBLE 

IX.  TEACHING    AND    PREACHING 

X.  PARISH    LIFE    IN    CATHOLIC    ENGLAND 

XI.  PRE-REFORMATION    GUILD    LIFE 

Xn.  MEDIEVAL   WILLS,    CHANTRIES,    AND    OBITS 

XIH.  PILGRIMAGES    AND    RELICS 


PAGE 

I 

14 
51 
78 

268 
236 
278 

351 
387 


THE    EVE    OF 

THE    REFORMATION 


CHAPTER   I 

INTRODUCTION 

The  English  Reformation  presents  a  variety  of  problems 
to  the  student  of  history.  Amongst  them  not  the  least 
difficult  or  important  is  the  general  question,  How  are 
we  to  account  for  the  sudden  beginning  and  the  ultimate 
success  of  a  movement  which,  apparently  at  least,  was 
opposed  to  the  religious  convictions  and  feelings  of  the 
nation  at  large  ?  To  explain  away  the  difficulty,  we  are 
asked  by  some  writers  to  believe  that  the  religious  revo- 
lution, although  perhaps  unrecognised  at  the  moment 
when  the  storm  first  burst,  had  long  been  inevitable, 
and  indeed  that  its  issue  had  been  foreseen  by  the 
most  learned  and  capable  men  in  England.  To  some, 
it  appears  that  the  Church,  on  the  eve  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, had  long  lost  its  hold  on  the  intelligence  and 
affection  of  the  English  people.  Discontented  with 
the  powers  claimed  by  the  ecclesiastical  authority,  and 
secretly  disaffected  to  much  of  the  mediaeval  teaching 
of  religious  truth  and  to  many  of  the  traditional  re- 
ligious ordinances,  the  laity  were,  it  is  suggested,  only 
too  eager  to  seize  upon  the  first  opportunity  of  emanci- 

A 


2  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

pating  themselves  from  a  thraldom  which  in  practice  had 
become  intolerable.     An  increase  of  knowledge,  too,  it 
is  supposed,  had  inevitably  led  men  to  view  as  false  and 
superstitious  many  of   the  practices  of  religion  which 
had  been  acquiesced  in  and  followed  without  doubt  or 
question  in  earlier  and  more  simple  days.     Men,  with  the 
increasing  light,  had  come  to  see,  in  the  support  given 
to  these  practices  by  the  clergy,  a  determination  to  keep 
people  at  large  in  ignorance,  and  to  make  capital  out  of 
many  of  these  objectionable  features  of  mediaeval  worship. 
Moreover,  such  writers  assume  that  in  reality  there 
was  little  or  no  practical  religion  among  the  mass  of 
the  people  for  some  considerable  time  before  the  out- 
break of  the  religious  difficulties  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
According  to  their  reading  of  the  facts,  the  nation,  as 
such,   had   long   lost  its  interest  in   the  religion   of  its 
forefathers.       Receiving    no    instruction    in    faith    and 
morals  worthy  of  the  name,  they  had  been  allowed  by 
the  neglect  of  the  clergy  to  grow  up  in  ignorance  of  the 
teachings,  and  in  complete  neglect  of  the  duties,  of  their 
religion.     Ecclesiastics  generally,  secular  as  well  as  re- 
ligious, had,  it  is  suggested,  forfeited  the   respect   and 
esteem  of  the  laity  by  their  evil  and  mercenary  lives  ; 
whilst,   imagining  that  the  surest  way  to  preserve  the 
remnants  of  their  former  power  was  to  keep  the  people 
ignorant,  they  had  opposed  the  literary  revival  of  the 
fifteenth   century  by   every  means   at   their   command. 
In  a  word,  the  picture  of  the  pre-Reformation  Church 
ordinarily   drawn    for    us    is   that   of   a   system  honey- 
combed with  disaffection  and  unbelief,  the  natural  and 
necessary   outcome   of    an    attempt   to   maintain  at  all 
hazards  an  effete  ecclesiastical  organisation,  which  clung 
with  the  tenacity  of  despair  to  doctrines  and  observances 


INTRODUCTION  3 

which  the  world  at  large  had  ceased  to  accept  as  true, 
or  to  observe  as  any  part  of  its  reasonable  service. 

In  view  of  these  and  similar  assertions,  it  is  of 
interest  and  importance  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  what 
really  was  the  position  of  the  Church  in  the  eyes  of  the 
nation  at  large  on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation,  to  under- 
stand the  attitude  of  men's  minds  to  the  system  as  they 
knew  it,  and  to  discover,  as  far  as  may  be,  what  in 
regard  to  religion  they  were  doing  and  saying  and  think- 
ing about,  when  the  change  came  upon  them.  It  is 
precisely  this  information  which  it  has  hitherto  been 
difficult  to  get,  and  the  present  work  is  designed  to 
supply  some  evidence  on  these  matters.  It  does  not 
pretend  in  any  sense  to  be  a  history  of  the  English 
Reformation,  to  give  any  consecutive  narrative  of  the 
religious  movements  in  this  country  during  the  sixteenth 
century,  or  to  furnish  an  adequate  account  of  the  causes 
which  led  up  to  them.  The  volume  in  reality  presents 
to  the  reader  merely  a  series  of  separate  studies  which, 
whilst  joined  together  by  a  certain  connecting  thread, 
must  not  be  taken  as  claiming  to  present  any  complete 
picture  of  the  period  immediately  preceding  the  Refor- 
mation, still  less  of  that  movement  itself. 

This  is  intentional.  Those  who  know  most  about 
this  portion  of  our  national  history  will  best  understand 
how  impossible  it  is  as  yet  for  any  one,  however  well 
informed,  to  write  the  history  of  the  Reformation  itself 
or  to  draw  for  us  any  detailed  and  accurate  picture  of 
the  age  that  went  before  that  great  event,  and  is  sup- 
posed by  some  to  have  led  up  to  it.  The  student  of  this 
great  social  and  religious  movement  must  at  present  be 
content  to  address  himself  to  the  necessary  work  of  sift- 
ing and  examining  the  many  new  sources  of  information 


4  THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

which  the  researches  of  late  years  have  opened  out 
to  the  inquirer.  For  example,  what  a  vast  field  of 
work  is  not  supplied  by  the  Calendar  of  Papers,  Foreign 
and  Domestic  J  of  the  Reign  of  Henry  VIII.  alone  !  In 
many  ways  this  monumental  work  may  well  be  con- 
sidered one  of  the  greatest  literary  achievements  of  the 
age.  It  furnishes  the  student  of  this  portion  of  our 
national  history  with  a  vast  catalogue  of  material,  all  of 
which  must  be  examined,  weighed,  and  arranged,  before 
it  is  possible  to  pass  a  judgment  upon  the  great  religious 
revolution  of  the  sixteenth  century.  And,  though  obvi- 
ously affording  grounds  for  a  reconsideration  of  many 
of  the  conclusions  previously  formed  in  regard  to  this 
perplexing  period,  it  must  in  no  sense  be  regarded  as 
even  an  exhaustive  calendar  of  the  available  material. 
Rolls,  records,  and  documents  of  all  kinds  exist  in 
public  and  private  archives,  which  are  not  included  in 
these  State  Papers,  but  which  are  equally  necessary  for 
the  formation  of  a  sound  and  reliable  opinion  on  the 
whole  story.  Besides  this  vast  mass  of  material,  the 
entire  literature  of  the  period  demands  careful  examina- 
tion, as  it  must  clearly  throw  great  light  on  the  tone 
and  temper  of  men's  minds,  and  reveal  the  origin  and 
growth  of  popular  views  and  opinions. 

Writers,  such  as  Burnet,  for  example,  and  others, 
have  indeed  presented  their  readers  with  the  story  of 
the  Reformation  as  a  whole,  and  have  not  hesitated  to 
set  out  at  length,  and  with  assurance,  the  causes  which 
led  up  to  that  event.  Whether  true  or  false,  they  have 
made  their  synthesis,  and  taking  a  comprehensive  view 
of  the  entire  subject,  they  have  rendered  their  story 
more  plausible  by  the  unity  of  idea  it  was  designed  to 
illustrate    and    confirm.       The    real    value    of    such    a 


INTRODUCTION  5 

synthesis,  however,  must  of  course  entirely  depend  on 
the  data  upon  which  it  rests.  The  opening  up  of  new 
sources  of  information  and  the  examination  of  old 
sources  in  the  critical  spirit  now  demanded  in  all  his- 
torical investigations  have  fully  proved,  however,  not 
merely  this  or  that  fact  to  be  wrong,  but  that  whole 
lines  of  argument  are  without  justification,  and  general 
deductions  without  reasonable  basis.  In  other  words, 
the  old  synthesis  has  been  founded  upon  false  facts  and 
false  inferences. 

Whilst,  however,  seeing  that  the  old  story  of  the 
Reformation  in  England  is  wrong  on  some  of  the  main 
lines  upon  which  it  depended,  it  is  for  reasons  just  stated 
impossible  at  present  to  substitute  a  new  synthesis  for 
the  old.  However  unsatisfactory  it  may  appear  to  be 
reduced  to  the  analysis  of  sources  and  the  examination 
of  details,  nothing  more  can  safely  be  attempted  at  the 
present  time.  A  general  view  cannot  be  taken  until 
the  items  that  compose  it  have  been  proved  and  tested 
and  found  correct.  Till  such  time  a  provisional  apprecia- 
tion at  best  of  the  general  subject  is  alone  possible.  The 
present  volume  then  is  occupied  solely  with  some  details, 
and  I  have  endeavoured  mainly  by  an  examination  of 
the  literature  of  the  period  in  question  to  gather  some 
evidence  of  the  mental  attitude  of  the  English  people 
towards  the  religious  system  which  prevailed  before  the 
rejection  of  the  Roman  jurisdiction  by  Henry  VIII. 

In  regard  to  the  general  question,  one  or  two  obser- 
vations may  be  premised. 

At  the  outset  it  may  be  allowed  that  in  many  things 
there  was  need  of  reform  in  its  truest  sense.  This 
was  recognised  by  the  best  and  most  staunch  sons  of 
Holy  Church  ;    and  the  Council  of  Trent  itself,  when 


6  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

we  read  its  decrees  and  measure  its  language,  is  suffi- 
cient proof  that  by  the  highest  authorities  it  was 
acknowledged  that  every  effort  must  be  made  to  purify 
the  Church  from  abuses,  superstitions,  and  scandals 
which,  in  the  course  of  the  long  ages  of  its  existence, 
had  sprung  from  its  contact  with  the  world  and  through 
the  human  weaknesses  of  its  rulers  and  ministers.  In 
reality,  however,  the  movement  for  reform  did  not  in 
any  way  begin  with  Trent,  nor  was  it  the  mere  outcome 
of  a  terror  inspired  by  the  wholesale  defection  of 
nations  under  the  influence  of  the  Lutheran  Reforma- 
tion. The  need  had  long  been  acknowledged  by  the 
best  and  most  devoted  sons  of  the  Church.  There 
were  those,  whom  M.  Eugene  Miintz  has  designated 
the  "  morose  cardinals,"  who  saw  whither  things  were 
tending,  and  strove  to  the  utmost  of  their  power  to 
avert  the  impending  catastrophe.  As  Janssen  has 
pointed  out,  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  for 
instance,  Nicholas  of  Cusa  initiated  reforms  in  Ger- 
many, with  the  approval  —  if  not  by  the  positive 
injunctions — of  the  Pope.  It  was,  however,  a  true 
reform,  a  reform  founded  on  the  principle  "  not  of 
destruction,  but  of  purification  and  renewal."  Hold- 
ing that  ''  it  was  not  for  men  to  change  what  was  holy ; 
but  for  the  holy  to  change  man,"  he  began  by  reform- 
ing himself  and  preaching  by  example.  He  restored 
discipline  and  eagerly  welcomed  the  revival  of  learning 
and  the  invention  of  printing  as  the  most  powerful 
auxiliaries  of  true  religion.  His  projects  of  general 
ecclesiastical  reforms  presented  to  Pius  II.  are  admir- 
able. Without  wishing  to  touch  the  organisation  of  the 
Church,  he  desired  full  and  drastic  measures  of  "  refor- 
mation in  head  and  members."     But  all  this  was  entirely 


INTRODUCTION  7 

different  from  the  spirit  and  aim  of  those  who  attacked  the 
Church  under  the  leadership  of  Luther  and  his  followers. 
Their  object  was  not  the  reform  and  purification  of  abuses, 
but  the  destruction  and  overthrow  of  the  existing  reli- 
gious system.  Before,  say,  15 17  or  even  152 1,  no  one 
at  this  period  ever  dreamt  of  wishing  to  change  the  basis 
of  the  Christian  religion,  as  it  was  then  understood.  The 
most  earnest  and  zealous  sons  of  the  Church  never  hesi- 
tated to  attack  this  or  that  abuse,  and  to  point  out  this 
or  that  spot,  desiring  to  make  the  edifice  of  God's  Church, 
as  they  understood  it,  more  solid,  more  useful,  and  more 
like  Christ's  ideal.  They  never  dreamt  that  their  work 
could  undermine  the  edifice,  much  less  were  their  aims 
directed  to  pulling  down  the  walls  and  digging  up  the 
foundations  ;  such  a  possibility  was  altogether  foreign 
to  their  conception  of  the  essential  constitution  of 
Christ's  Church.  To  suggest  that  men  like  Colet,  More, 
and  Erasmus  had  any  leaning  to,  or  sympathy  with, 
"the  Reformation"  as  we  know  it,  is,  in  view  of  what 
they  have  written,  absolutely  false  and  misleading. 

The  fact  is,  that  round  the  true  history  of  the 
Reformation  movement  in  England,  there  has  grown 
up,  as  Janssen  has  shown  had  been  the  case  in  Ger- 
many, a  mass  of  legend  from  which  it  is  often  difficult 
enough  to  disentangle  the  truth.  It  has  been  suggested, 
for  instance,  that  the  period  which  preceded  the  advent 
of  the  new  religious  ideas  was,  to  say  the  least,  a  period 
of  stagnation.  That,  together  with  the  light  of  what  is 
called  the  Gospel,  came  the  era  of  national  prosperity, 
and  that  the  golden  age  of  literature  and  art  was  the 
outcome  of  that  liberty  and  freedom  of  spirit  which  was 
the  distinct  product  of  the  Protestant  Reformation. 
And  yet  what  are  the  facts  ?     Was  the  age  immediately 


8  THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

before  the  religious  upheaval  of  the  sixteenth  century 
so  very  black,  and  was  it  the  magic  genius  of  Luther 
who  divined  how  to  call  forth  the  light  out  of  the 
"  void  and  empty  darkness "  ?  Luther,  himself,  shall 
tell  us  his  opinion  of  the  century  before  the  rise  of 
Protestantism.  *'  Any  one  reading  the  chronicles,"  he 
writes,  "  will  find  that  since  the  birth  of  Christ  there  is 
nothing  that  can  compare  with  what  has  happened  in 
our  world  during  the  last  hundred  years.  Never  in  any 
country  have  people  seen  so  much  building,  so  much 
cultivation  of  the  soil.  Never  has  such  good  drink, 
such  abundant  and  delicate  food,  been  within  the  reach 
of  so  many.  Dress  has  become  so  rich  that  it  cannot 
in  this  respect  be  improved.  Who  has  ever  heard  of 
commerce  such  as  we  see  it  to-day  ?  It  circles  the 
globe  ;  it  embraces  the  whole  world  !  Painting,  engrav- 
ing— all  the  arts — have  progressed  and  are  still  improv- 
ing. More  than  all,  we  have  men  so  capable,  and  so 
learned,  that  their  wit  penetrates  everything  in  such  a 
way,  that  nowadays  a  youth  of  twenty  knows  more 
than  twenty  doctors  did  in  days  gone  by."  ^ 

In  this  passage  we  have  the  testimony  of  the  Ger- 
man reformer  himself  that  the  eve  of  the  Reformation 
was  in  no  sense  a  period  of  stagnation.  The  world  was 
fully  awake,  and  the  light  of  learning  and  art  had  already 
dawned  upon  the  earth.  The  progress  of  commerce  and 
the  prosperity  of  peoples  owed  nothing  to  the  religious 
revolt  of  the  sixteenth  century.  Nor  is  this  true  only 
for  Germany.  There  is  evidence  to  prove  that  Luther's 
picture  is  as  correct  in  that  period  for  England.  Learn- 
ing, there  can  be  no  question,  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
found  a  congenial  soil  in  this  country.      In  its  origin,  as 

^  opera  (ed.  Frankfort),  torn.  x.  p.  56,  quoted  by  Janssen. 


INTRODUCTION  9 

well  as  in  its  progress,  the  English  revival  of  letters, 
which  may  be  accurately  gauged  by  the  renewal  of 
Greek  studies,  found  its  chief  patrons  in  the  fifteenth 
and  early  sixteenth  centuries  among  the  clergy  and  the 
most  loyal  lay  sons  of  the  Church.  The  fears  of  Eras- 
mus that  the  rise  of  Lutheranism  would  prove  the  death- 
blow of  solid  scholarship  were  literally  fulfilled.  In 
England,  no  less  than  in  Germany,  amid  the  religious 
difficulties  and  the  consequent  social  disturbances,  learn- 
ing, except  in  so  far  as  it  served  to  aid  the  exigencies  of 
polemics  or  meet  the  controversial  needs  of  the  hour, 
declined  for  well-nigh  a  century  ;  and  so  far  from  the 
Reformation  affording  the  congenial  soil  upon  which 
scholarship  and  letters  flourished,  it  was  in  reality — to 
use  Erasmus's  own  favourite  expression  about  the  move- 
ment— a  *'  catastrophe,"  in  which  was  overwhelmed  the 
real  progress  of  the  previous  century.  The  state  of  the 
universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  before  and  after 
the  period  of  religious  change,  is  an  eloquent  testimony 
as  to  its  effect  on  learning  in  general  ;  whilst  the  differ- 
ences of  opinion  in  religious  matters  to  which  the 
Reformation  gave  rise,  at  once  put  a  stop  to  the  inter- 
national character  of  the  foreign  universities.  English 
names  forthwith  disappeared  from  the  students'  lists  at 
the  great  centres  of  learning  in  France  and  Italy,  an 
obvious  misfortune,  which  had  a  disastrous  effect  on 
English  scholarship  ;  the  opening  up  of  the  schools  of 
the  reformed  churches  of  Germany  in  no  wise  compen- 
sating for  the  international  training  hitherto  received  by 
most  English  scholars  of  eminence. 

In  art  and  architecture,  too,  in  the  second  half  of 
the  fifteenth  century  and  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth, 
there  was  manifested  an  activity  in   England  which  is 


10         THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

without  a  parallel.  There  never  was  a  period  in  which 
such  life  and  energy  was  displayed  in  the  building  and 
adornment  of  churches  of  all  kinds  as  on  the  very  eve 
of  the  Reformation.  Not  in  one  part  of  the  country 
only,  nor  in  regard  only  to  the  greater  churches,  was 
this  characteristic  activity  shown,  but  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  England  the  walls  of  our  great 
cathedrals  and  minsters,  and  well-nigh  those  of  every 
little  parish  church  in  the  land,  still  bear  their  testimony 
to  what  was  done  out  of  love  for  God's  house  during 
the  period  in  question  by  the  English  people.  More- 
over, by  the  aid  of  the  existing  accounts  and  inventories 
it  can  be  proved  to  demonstration  that  it  was  a  work 
which  then,  more  than  at  any  other  period  of  our 
national  existence,  appealed  to  the  people  at  large  and 
was  carried  out  by  them.  No  longer,  as  in  earlier 
times,  was  the  building  and  beautifying  of  God's  house 
left  in  this  period  to  some  great  noble  benefactor  or 
rich  landowner.  During  the  fifteenth  century  the 
people  were  themselves  concerned  with  the  work, 
initiated  it,  found  the  means  to  carry  it  out,  and  super- 
intended it  in  all  its  details. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  art.  The  work  of  adorn- 
ing the  walls  of  the  churches  with  paintings  and  frescoes, 
the  work  of  filling  in  the  tracery  of  the  windows  with 
pictured  glass,  the  work  of  setting  up,  and  carving,  and 
painting,  and  decorating  ;  the  making  of  screens,  and 
stalls,  and  altars,  all  during  this  period,  and  right  up  to 
the  eve  of  the  change,  was  in  every  sense  popular.  It 
was  the  people  who  carried  out  these  works,  and  evi- 
dently for  the  sole  reason  because  they  loved  to  beautify 
their  churches,  which  were,  in  a  way  now  somewhat 
difficult  to  realise,  the  centre  no  less  of  their  lives  than  of 


INTRODUCTION  ii 

their  religion.  Popular  art  grows,  and  only  grows  luxuri- 
antly, upon  a  religious  soil  ;  and  under  the  inspiration 
of  a  popular  enthusiasm  the  parish  churches  of  Eng- 
land became,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  evidence  of  the 
wills,  accounts,  and  inventories  which  still  survive,  not 
merely  sanctuaries,  but  veritable  picture  galleries,  teach- 
ing the  poor  and  unlettered  the  history  and  doctrine  of 
their  religion.  Nor  were  the  pictures  themselves  the 
miserable  daubs  which  some  have  suggested.  The 
stained-glass  windows  were  not  only  multiplied  in  the 
churches  of  England  during  this  period,  but  by  those 
best  able  to  judge,  the  time  between  1480  and  1520 
has  been  regarded  as  the  golden  age  of  the  art  ;  and  as 
regards  the  frescoes  and  decorations  themselves,  there 
is  evidence  of  the  existence  in  England  of  a  high  pro- 
ficiency, both  in  design  and  execution,  before  the 
Reformation.  Two  examples  may  be  taken  to  attest 
the  truth  of  this  :  the  series  of  paintings  against  which 
the  stalls  in  Eton  College  Chapel  are  now  placed,  and 
the  pictures  on  the  walls  of  the  Lady  Chapel  at  Win- 
chester, now  unfortunately  destroyed  by  the  whitewash 
with  which  they  had  been  covered  on  the  change  of 
religion.  Those  who  had  the  opportunity  of  examining 
the  former  series,  when  many  years  ago  they  were  un- 
covered on  the  temporary  removal  of  the  stalls,  have 
testified  to  their  intrinsic  merit.  Indeed,  they  appeared 
to  the  best  judges  of  the  time  as  being  so  excellent  in 
drawing  and  colour  that  on  their  authority  they  were 
long  supposed  to  have  been  the  work  of  some  unknown 
Italian  artist  of  the  school  of  Giotto.  By  a  fortunate 
discovery  of  Mr.  J.  Willis  Clarke,  however,  it  is  now 
known  that  both  these  and  the  Winchester  series  were 
in  reality  executed  by  an  Englishman,  named  Baker. 


12         THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

The  same  is  true  with  regard  to  decoration  and 
carving  work.  In  screen  -  work,  the  Perpendicular 
period  is  allowed  to  have  excelled  all  others,  both  in 
the  lavish  amount  of  the  ornament  as  well  as  in  the 
style  of  decoration.  One  who  has  paid  much  atten- 
tion to  this  subject  says  :  *'  During  this  period,  the 
screen  -  work  was  usually  enriched  by  gilding  and 
painting,  or  was  '  depensiled,'  as  the  phrase  runs, 
and  many  curious  works  of  the  limner's  art  may  still 
be  seen  in  the  churches  of  Norfolk  and  Suffolk.  In 
Sussex,  the  screens  of  Brighton  and  Horsham  may 
be  cited  as  painted  screens  of  beauty  and  merit,  both 
having  been  thus  ornamented  in  a  profuse  and  costly 
manner,  and  each  bore  figures  of  saints  in  their 
panels."  ^  The  churchwardens'  accounts,  too,  show 
that  the  work  of  thus  decorating  the  English  parish 
churches  was  in  full  operation  up  to  the  very  eve  of 
the  religious  changes.  In  these  truthful  pictures  of 
parochial  life,  we  may  see  the  people  and  their  repre- 
sentatives busily  engaged  in  collecting  the  necessary 
money,  and  in  superintending  the  work  of  setting  up 
altars  and  statues  and  paintings,  and  in  hiring  carvers 
and  decorators  to  enrich  what  their  ancestors  had 
provided  for  God's  house.  It  was  the  age,  too,  of 
organ-making  and  bell-founding,  and  there  is  hardly 
a  record  of  any  parish  church  at  this  time  which  does 
not  show  considerable  sums  of  money  spent  upon  these. 
From  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  to  the  period 
described  as  "the  great  pillage,"  music,  too,  had  made 
great  progress  in  England,  and  the  renown  of  the 
English  school  had  spread  over  Europe.  Musical 
compositions  had  multiplied  in  a  wonderful  way,  and 
before  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century  "  prick  song," 

'  J.  L.  Andre,  in  Sussex  Arcluiological  Journal,  xxxix.  p.  31. 


INTRODUCTION  13 

or  part  music,  is  very  frequently  found  in  the  inven- 
tories of  our  English  parish  churches.  In  fact,  it  has 
been  recently  shown  that  much  of  the  music  of  the 
boasted  school  of  ecclesiastical  music  to  which  the 
English  Reformation  had  been  thought  to  have  given 
birth,  is,  in  reality,  music  adapted  to  the  new  English 
services,  from  Latin  originals,  which  had  been  inspired 
by  the  ancient  offices  of  the  Church.  Most  of  the 
"  prick  song  "  masses  and  other  musical  compositions 
were  destroyed  in  the  wholesale  destruction  which 
accompanied  the  religious  changes,  but  sufficient  re- 
mains to  show  that  the  English  pre-Reformation  school 
of  music  was  second  to  none  in  Europe.  The  reputa- 
tion of  some  of  its  chief  masters,  like  Dunstable,  Tallis, 
and  Bird,  had  spread  to  other  countries,  and  their 
works  had  been  used  and  studied,  even  in  that  land 
of  song,  Italy. 

A  dispassionate  consideration  of  the  period  preced- 
ing the  great  religious  upheaval  of  the  sixteenth  century 
will,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted,  lead  the  inquirer  to 
conclude  that  it  was  not  in  any  sense  an  age  of 
stagnation,  discontent,  and  darkness.  Letters,  art, 
architecture,  painting,  and  music,  under  the  distinct 
patronage  of  the  Church,  had  made  great  and  steady 
progress  before  the  advent  of  the  new  ideas.  More- 
over, those  who  will  examine  the  old  parish  records 
cannot  fail  to  see  that  up  to  the  very  eve  of  the  changes, 
the  old  religion  had  not  lost  its  hold  upon  the  minds 
and  affections  of  the  people  at  large.  And  one  thing 
is  absolutely  clear,  that  it  was  not  the  Reformation 
movement  which  brought  to  the  world  in  its  train  the 
blessings  of  education,  and  the  arts  of  civilisation. 
What  it  did  for  all  these  is  written  plainly  enough  in 
the  history  of  that  period  of  change  and  destruction. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS  IN  ENGLAND 

The  story  of  the  English  Hterary  revival  in  the  fifteenth 
and    sixteenth    centuries    is    of    no    little    interest    and 
importance.     The  full  history  of  the  movement  would 
form  the  fitting  theme  of  an  entire  volume  ;  but  the 
real  facts  are  so  contrary  to  much  that  is  commonly 
believed  about  our  English  renaissance  of  letters,  that 
some  brief  account  is   necessary,  if  we  would  rightly 
understand  the  attitude  of  men's  minds  on  the  eve  of 
the  Reformation.     At  the  outset,  it  is  useful  to  recall  the 
limits  of  this  English  renaissance.     Judged  by  what  is 
known  of  the  movement  in  Italy,  the  land  of  its  origin, 
the  word  "  renaissance  "  is  usually  understood  to  denote 
not  only  the  adoption   of  the  learning  and  intellectual 
culture   of  ancient   Greece   and    Rome   by  the    leaders 
of  thought   in   the  Western   World   during  the   period 
in  question,  but  an  almost  servile  following  of  classical 
models,   the   absorption    of    the   pagan    spirit   and   the 
adoption    of   pagan    modes   of   expression   so   fully,    as 
certainly  to  obscure,  if  it  did  not  frequently  positively 
obliterate,  Christian  sentiment  and  Christian  ideals.      In 
this  sense,  it  is  pleasing  to  think,  the  renaissance  was 
unknown  in  England.      So  far,  however,  as  the  revival 
of  learning  is  concerned,  England  bore  its  part  in,  if 
indeed  it  may  not  be  said  to  have  been  in  the  forefront 
of,  the  movement. 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      15 

This  has,  perhaps,  hardly  been  realised  as  it  should 
be.  That  the  sixteenth  century  witnessed  a  remarkable 
awakening  of  minds,  a  broadening  of  intellectual  in- 
terests, and  a  considerable  advance  in  general  culture, 
has  long  been  known  and  acknowledged.  There  is 
little  doubt,  however,  that  the  date  usually  assigned 
both  for  the  dawning  of  the  light  and  for  the  time 
of  its  full  development  is  altogether  too  late  ;  whilst 
the  circumstances  which  fostered  the  growth  of  the 
movement  have  apparently  been  commonly  misunder- 
stood, and  the  chief  agents  in  initiating  it  altogether 
ignored.  The  great  period  of  the  reawakening  would 
ordinarily  be  placed  without  hesitation  in  post-Reforma- 
tion times,  and  writers  of  all  shades  of  opinion  have 
joined  in  attributing  the  revival  of  English  letters  to 
the  freedom  of  minds  and  hearts  purchased  by  the 
overthrow  of  the  old  ecclesiastical  system,  and  their 
emancipation  from  the  narrowing  and  withering  effects 
of  mediaevalism. 

On  the  assumption  that  the  only  possible  attitude 
of  English  churchmen  on  the  eve  of  the  great  religious 
changes  would  be  one  of  uncompromising  hostility  to 
learning  and  letters,  many  have  come  to  regard  the  one, 
not  as  inseparably  connected  with  the  other,  but  the 
secular  as  the  outcome  of  the  religious  movement.  The 
undisguised  opposition  of  the  clergy  to  the  "  New  Learn- 
ing" is  spoken  of  as  sufficient  proof  of  the  Church's 
dislike  of  learning  in  general,  and  its  determination  to 
check  the  nation's  aspirations  to  profit  by  the  general 
classical  revival.  This  assumption  is  based  upon  a  com- 
plete misapprehension  as  to  what  was  then  the  meaning 
of  the  term  "  New  Learning."  It  was  in  no  sense  con- 
nected with  the  revival  of  letters,  or  with  what  is  now 


i6         THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

understood  by  learning  and  culture  ;  but  it  was  in  the 
Reformation  days  a  well-recognised  expression  used  to 
denote  the  novel  religious  teachings  of  Luther  and  his 
followers.^  Uncompromising  hostility  to  such  novelties, 
no  doubt,  marked  the  religious  attitude  of  many,  who 
were  at  the  same  time  the  most  strenuous  advocates  of 
the  renaissance  of  letters.  This  is  so  obvious  in  the 
works  of  the  period,  that  were  it  not  for  the  common 
misuse  of  the  expression  at  the  present  day,  and  for  the 
fact  that  opposition  to  the  "  New  Learning  "  is  assumed 
on  all  hands  to  represent  hostility  to  letters,  rather  than 
to  novel  teachings  in  religious  matters,  there  would  be 
no  need  to  furnish  examples  of  its  real  use  in  the  period 
in  question.  As  it  is,  some  instances  taken  from  the 
works  of  that  time  become  almost  a  necessity,  if  we 
would  understand  the  true  position  of  many  of  the  chief 
actors  at  this  period  of  our  history. 

Roger  Edgworth,  a  preacher,  for  instance,  after 
speaking  of  those  who  "  so  arrogantly  glory  in  their 
learning,  had  by  study  in  the  English  Bible,  and  in 
these  seditious  English  books  that  have  been  sent  over 
from  our  English  runagates  now  abiding  with  Luther 
in  Saxony,"  praises  the  simple-hearted  faith  that  was 
accepted  unquestioned  by  all  "  before  this  wicked  '  New 
Learning '  arose  in  Saxony  and  came  over  into  England 
amongst  us." '' 

^  The  use  of  the  expression  "New  Learning"  as  meaning  the  revival  of 
letters  is  now  so  common  that  any  instance  of  it  may  seem  superfluous. 
Green,  for  example,  in  his  History  of  the  English  People,  vol.  ii.  constantly 
speaks  of  it.  Thus  (p.  8i),  "  Erasmus  embodied  for  the  Teutonic  peoples  the 
quickening  influence  of  the  New  Learning  during  the  long  scholar-Ufe  which 
began  at  Paris  and  ended  amidst  sorrow  at  Basle."  Again  (p.  84),  "  the 
group  of  scholars  who  represented  the  New  Learning  in  England."  Again 
(p.  86),  "On  the  universities  the  influence  of  the  New  Learning  was  like  a 
passing  from  death  to  life."  Again  (p.  125),  "As  yet  the  New  Learning, 
though  scared  by  Luther's  intemperate  language,  had  steadily  backed  him  in 
his  struggle."  -  Sermons.     London:  Robert  Caly,  1557,  p.  36. 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      17 

From  the  preface  of  The  Praier  and  Complaynte  of  the 
Plowetnan,  dated  February  1531,  it  is  equally  clear 
that  the  expression  "  New  Learning  "  was  then  under- 
stood only  of  religious  teaching.  Like  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  in  the  time  of  Our  Lord,  the  author  says,  the 
bishops  and  priests  are  calling  out :  "  What '  New  Learn- 
ing '  is  it  ?  These  fellows  teach  new  learning  :  these 
are  they  that  trouble  all  the  world  with  their  new 
learning  ?  .  .  .  Even  now  after  the  same  manner,  our 
holy  bishops  with  all  their  ragman's  roll  are  of  the  same 
sort.  .  .  .  They  defame,  slander,  and  persecute  the 
word  and  the  preachers  and  followers  of  it,  with  the 
selfsame  names,  calling  it  '  New  Learning '  and  them 
'  new  masters.'  "  ^ 

The  same  meaning  was  popularly  attached  to  the 
words  even  after  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 
A  book  published  in  King  Edward's  reign,  to  instruct 
the  people  **  concerning  the  king's  majesty's  proceedings 
in  the  communion,"  bears  the  title.  The  olde  Faith  of  Great 
Brittayne  and  the  new  learning  of  England.  It  is,  of  course, 
true,  that  the  author  sets  himself  to  show  that  the  re- 
formed doctrines  were  the  old  teachings  of  the  Christian 
Church,  and  that,  when  St.  Gregory  sent  St.  Augustine 
over  into  England,  *'  the  new  learning  was  brought  into 
this  realm,  of  which  we  see  much  yet  remaining  in  the 
Church   at  the    present  day."  ^       But    this   fact    rather 

^  The  Praier  and  Complaynte.  of  the  Ploweman  tinio  Christ,  sig.  Aij, 
"  R.V.  The  olde  Faith  of  Great  Brittaytie,  6^<r. — The  style  of  the  book 
may  be  judged  by  the  following  passages : — "  How  say  you  (O  ye  popish 
bishops  and  priests  which  maintain  Austen's  dampnable  ceremonies)^For 
truly  so  long  as  ye  say  masse  and  lift  the  bread  and  wine  above  your  heads, 
giving  the  people  to  understand  your  mass  to  be  available  for  the  quick  and 
the  dead,  ye  deny  the  Lord  that  bought  you  ;  therefore  let  the  mass  go  again 
to  Rome,  with  all  Austen's  trinkets,  and  cleave  to  the  Lord's  Supper  "... 
Again  : — "Gentle  reader:  It  is  not  unknown  what  an  occasion  of  sclander 
divers  have  taken  in  that  the  king's  majesty  hath  with  his  honourable  council 

B 


1 8        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

emphasises  than  in  any  way  obscures  the  common 
understanding  of  the  expression  "  New  Learning,"  since 
the  whole  intent  of  the  author  is  to  show  that  the 
upholders  of  the  old  ecclesiastical  system  were  the  real 
maintainers  of  a  "  New  Learning  "  brought  from  Rome 
by  St.  Augustine,  and  not  the  Lutherans.  The  same 
appears  equally  clearly  in  a  work  by  Urbanus  Regius, 
which  was  translated  and  published  by  William  Turner 
in  1537,  and  called  A  comparison  betwene  the  old  Icarnynge 
and  the  newe.     As  the  translator  says  at  the  beginning — 

"  Some  ther  be  that  do  defye 
All  that  is  newe  and  ever  do  crye 
The  olde  is  better,  away  with  the  new 
Because  it  is  false,  and  the  olde  is  true. 
Let  them  this  booke  reade  and  beholde, 
For  it  preferreth  the  learning  most  olde." 

As  the  author  of  the  previous  volume  quoted,  so 
Urbanus  Regius  compares  the  exclamation  of  the  Jews 
against  our  Lord  :  "  What  new  learning  is  this  ?  "  with 
the  objection,  "  What  is  this  new  doctrine  ?  "  made  by 
the  Catholics  against  the  novel  religious  teaching  of 
Luther  and  his  followers.  "This,"  they  say,  ''is  the 
new  doctrine  lately  devised  and  furnished  in  the  shops 

gone  about  to  alter  and  take  away  the  abuse  of  the  communion  used  in  the 
mass  .  .  .  The  ignorant  and  unlearned  esteem  the  same  abuse,  called  the  mass, 
to  be  the  principal  point  of  Christianity,  to  whom  the  altering  thereof  appears 
very  strange  .  .  .  Our  popish  priests  still  do  abuse  the  Lord's  Supper  or  Com- 
munion, calling  it  still  a  new  name  oi  Ahssa  or  Mass."  The  author  strongly 
objects  to  those  like  Bishop  Gardiner  and  Dr.  Smythe  who  have  written  in 
defence  of  the  old  doctrine  of  the  English  Church  on  the  Blessed  Sacrament : 
"Yea,  even  the  mass,  which  is  a  derogation  of  Christ's  blood.  For  Christ 
left  the  sacrament  of  his  body  and  blood  in  bread  and  wine  to  be  eaten  and 
drunk  in  remembrance  of  his  death,  and  not  to  be  looked  upon  as  the  Israel- 
ites did  the  brazen  serpent  .  .  .  Paul  saith  not,  as  often  as  the  priest  lifts  the 
bread  and  wine  above  his  shaven  crown,  for  the  papists  to  gaze  at."  All  this, 
as  "the  New  Learning"  brought  over  to  England  by  St.  Augustine  of 
Canterbury,  the  author  would  send  back  to  Rome  from  whence  it  came. 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      19 

and  workhouses  of  heretics.  Let  us  abide  still  in  our 
old  faith  .  .  .  Wherefore,"  continues  the  author,  "  I, 
doing  the  office  of  Christian  brother,  have  made  a  com- 
parison between  the  '  New  Learning '  and  the  olden, 
whereby,  dear  brother,  you  may  easily  know  whether 
we  are  called  worthily  or  unworthily  the  preachers  of 
the  '  New  Learning.'  For  so  did  they  call  us  of  late." 
He  then  proceeds  to  compare  under  various  headings 
what  he  again  and  again  calls  ''  the  New  Learning  "  and 
^'the  Old  Learning."  For  example,  according  to  the 
former,  people  are  taught  that  the  Sacraments  bring 
grace  to  the  soul  ;  according  to  the  latter,  faith  alone  is 
needful.  According  to  the  former,  Christ  is  present 
wholly  under  each  kind  of  bread  and  wine,  the  mass  is 
a  sacrifice  for  the  living  and  the  dead,  and  "  oblation  is 
made  in  the  person  of  the  whole  church  "  ;  according 
to  the  latter,  the  Supper  is  a  memorial  only  of  Christ's 
death,  "  and  not  a  sacrifice,  but  a  remembrance  of  the 
sacrifice  that  was  once  offered  up  on  the  cross,"  and  that 
^'all  oblations  except  that  of  our  Lord  are  vain  and  void."^ 
In  view  of  passages  such  as  the  above,  and  in  the 
absence  of  any  contemporary  evidence  of  the  use  of 
the  expression  to  denote  the  revival  of  letters,  it  is 
obvious  that  any  judgment  as  to  a  general  hostility  of 
Ihe  clergy  to  learning  based  upon  their  admitted  oppo- 
sition to  what  was  then  called  the  "  New  Learning " 
•cannot  seriously  be  maintained.  It  would  seem,  more- 
over, that  the  religious  position  of  many  ecclesiastics  and 
laymen  has  been  completely  misunderstood  by  the  mean- 
ing now  so  commonly  assigned  to  the  expression.  Men 
like  Erasmus,  Colet,  and  to  a  great  extent,  More  himself, 

^  Urbanus  Regius,  A  comparison  betivene  the  old  harnynge  and  the  newe, 
.translated  by  William  Turner.    Southwark  :  Nicholson,  1537,  sig.  Aij  to  Cvij. 


20        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

have  been  regarded,  to  say  the  least,  as  at  heart  very 
kikewarm  adherents  of  the  Church,  precisely  because  of 
their  strong  advocacy  of  the  movement  known  as  the 
literary  revival,  which,  identified  by  modern  writers  with 
the  "  New  Learning,"  was,  it  is  wrongly  assumed,  con- 
demned by  orthodox  churchmen.  The  Reformers  are 
thus  made  the  champions  of  learning  ;  Catholics,  the  up- 
holders of  ignorance,  and  the  hereditary  and  bitter  foes 
of  all  intellectual  improvement.  No  one,  however,  saw 
more  clearly  than  did  Erasmus  that  the  rise  of  Lutheran 
opinions  was  destined  to  be  the  destruction  of  true 
learning,  and  that  the  atmosphere  of  controversy  was 
not  the  most  fitting  to  assure  its  growth.  To  Richard 
Pace  he  expressed  his  ardent  wish  that  some  kindly 
Deus  ex  machind  would  put  an  end  to  the  whole 
Lutheran  agitation,  for  it  had  most  certainly  brought 
upon  the  humanist  movement  unmerited  hatred.^  In 
subsequent  letters  he  rejects  the  idea  that  the  two, 
the  Lutheran  and  the  humanist  movements,  had  any- 
thing whatever  in  common  ;  asserting  that  even  Luther 
himself  had  never  claimed  to  found  his  revolt  against 
the  Church  on  the  principles  of  scholarship  and  learn- 
ing. To  him,  the  storm  of  the  Reformation  appeared 
— so  far  as  concerned  the  revival  of  learning — as  a 
catastrophe.  Had  the  tempest  not  risen,  he  had  the 
best  expectations  of  a  general  literary  renaissance  and 
of  witnessing  a  revival  of  interest  in  Biblical  and 
patristic  studies  among  churchmen.  It  was  the  breath 
of  bitter  and  endless  controversy  initiated  in  the 
Lutheran  revolt  and  the  consequent  misunderstandings 
and  enmities  which  withered  his  hopes.^ 

There   remains,  however,  the    broader  question  as 

^  opera  (ed.  Le  Clerc),  Ep.  583.  -  Ibid.,  Ep.  751. 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS  IN   ENGLAND      21 

to  the  I  real  position  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities 
generally,  in  regard  to  the  revival  of  learning.  So 
far  as  England  is  concerned,  their  attitude  is  hardly 
open  to  doubt  in  view  of  the  positive  testimony  of 
Erasmus,  which  is  further  borne  out  by  an  examina- 
tion of  the  material  available  for  forming  a  judgment. 
This  proves  beyond  all  question,  not  only  that  the 
Church  in  England  on  the  eve  of  the  change  did  not 
refuse  the  light,  but  that,  both  in  its  origin  and  later 
development,  the  movement  owed  much  to  the  initiative 
and  encouragement  of  English  churchmen. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  enter  very  fully  into 
the  subject  of  the  general  revival  of  learning  in  Europe 
during  the  course  of  the  fifteenth  century.  At  the  very 
beginning  of  that  period  what  Gibbon  calls  "  a  new 
and  perpetual  flame "  was  enkindled  in  Italy.  As  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  so  then  it  was  the  study  of  the 
literature  and  culture  of  ancient  Greece  that  re-enkindled 
the  lamp  of  learning  in  the  Western  World.  Few 
things,  indeed,  are  more  remarkable  than  the  influence 
of  Greek  forms  and  models  on  the  Western  World. 
The  very  language  seems  as  if  destined  by  Providence 
to  do  for  the  Christian  nations  of  Europe  what  in 
earlier  ages  it  had  done  for  pagan  Rome.  As  Dr. 
Dollinger  has  pointed  out,  this  is  "a  fact  of  immense 
importance,  which  even  in  these  days  it  is  worth  while 
to  weigh  and  place  in  its  proper  light,"  since  "the 
whole  of  modern  civilisation  and  culture  is  derived 
from  Greek  sources.  Intellectually  we  are  the  off- 
spring of  the  union  of  the  ancient  Greek  classics  with 
Hellenised  Judaism."  One  thing  is  clear  on  the  page 
of  history :  that  the  era  of  great  intellectual  activity 
synchronised  with  re-awakened  interests  in  the   Greek 


2  2         THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

classics  and  Greek  language  in  such  a  way  that  the 
study  of  Greek  may  conveniently  be  taken  as  repre- 
senting a  general  revival  of  letters. 

By  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century,  the  ever- 
increasing  impotence  of  the  Imperial  sway  on  the 
Bosphorus,  and  the  ever-growing  influence  of  the 
Turk,  compelled  the  Greek  emperors  to  look  to  Western 
Christians  for  help  to  arrest  the  power  of  the  infidels, 
which,  like  a  flood,  threatened  to  overwhelm  the  Eastern 
empire.  Three  emperors  in  succession  journeyed  into 
the  Western  world  to  implore  assistance  in  their  dire 
necessity,  and  though  their  efforts  failed  to  save  Con- 
stantinople, the  historian  detects  in  these  pilgrimages  of 
Greeks  to  the  Courts  of  Europe  the  providential  in- 
fluence which  brought  about  the  renaissance  of  letters. 
*'The  travels  of  the  three  emperors,"  writes  Gibbon, 
"  were  unavailing  for  their  temporal,  or  perhaps  their 
spiritual  salvation,  but  they  were  productive  of  a  bene- 
ficial consequence,  the  revival  of  the  Greek  learning  in 
Italy,  from  whence  it  was  propagated  to  the  last  nations 
of  the  West  and  North." 

What  is  true  of  Italy  may  well  be  true  of  other 
countries  and  places.  The  second  of  these  pilgrim 
emperors,  Manuel,  the  son  and  successor  of  Palaeologus, 
crossed  the  Alps,  and  after  a  stay  in  Paris,  came  over 
the  sea  into  England.  In  December  1400  he  landed 
at  Dover,  and  was,  with  a  large  retinue  of  Greeks, 
entertained  at  the  monastery  of  Christchurch,  Canter- 
bury. It  requires  little  stretch  of  imagination  to  suppose 
that  the  memory  of  such  a  visit  would  have  lingered 
long  in  the  cloister  of  Canterbury,  and  it  is  hardly 
perhaps  by  chance  that  it  is  here  that  half  a  century 
later  are  to  be  found  the  first  serious  indications  of  a 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      23 

revival  of  Greek  studies.  Moreover,  it  is  evident  that 
other  Greek  envoys  followed  in  subsequent  times,  and 
even  the  great  master  and  prodigy  of  learning,  Manuel 
Chrysoloras  himself,  found  his  way  to  our  shores,  and 
it  is  hardly  an  assumption,  in  view  of  the  position  of 
Canterbury — on  the  high-road  from  Dover  to  London 
— to  suppose  to  Christchurch  also.^  It  was  from  his 
arrival  in  Italy,  in  1396,  that  may  be  dated  the  first 
commencement  of  systematic  study  of  the  Greek  classics 
in  the  West.  The  year  1408  is  given  for  his  visit  to 
England.^ 

There  are  indications  early  in  the  fifteenth  century 
of  a  stirring  of  the  waters  in  this  country.  Guarini,  a 
pupil  of  Chrysoloras,  became  a  teacher  of  fame  at 
Ferrara,  where  he  gathered  round  him  a  school  of 
disciples  which  included  several  Englishmen.  Such  were 
Tiptoft,  Earl  of  Worcester  ;  ^  Robert  Fleming,  a  learned 
ecclesiastic  ;  John  Free,  John  Gundthorpe,  and  William 
Gray,  Bishop  of  Ely  ;  whilst  another  Italian,  Aretino, 
attracted  by  his  fame  another  celebrated  Englishman, 
Humphrey,  Duke  of  Gloucester,  to  his  classes.  These, 
however,  were  individual  cases,  and  their  studies,  and 
even  the  books  they  brought  back,  led  to  little  in  the 
way  of  systematic  work  in  England  at  the  old  classical 
models.  The  fall  of  Constantinople  in  1453  gave  the 
required  stimulus  here,  as  in   Italy.     Among  the  fugi- 

'  Remigio  Sabbadini,  La  Scuola  e  gli  studi  di  Guarino  Guarmi  Veronese, 
pp.  217-18. 

^  R.  Sabbadini,  Guarino  Veronese  et  il  sua  eptstolaj-io,  p.  57. 

^  The  Earl  was  a  confrater  and  special  friend  of  the  monks  of  Christ- 
church,  Canterbury.  In  1468-69,  Prior  Goldstone  wrote  to  the  Earl,  who 
had  been  abroad  "on  pilgrimage"  for  four  years,  to  try  and  obtain  for  Can- 
terbury the  usual  jubilee  privileges  of  1470.  In  his  Obit  in  the  Canterbury 
Necrology  (MS.  Arund.  68  f.  45d)  he  is  described  as  "vir  undecumque  doc- 
tissimus,  omnium  liberalium  artium  divinarumque  simul  ac  secularium  litter- 
arum  scientia  peritissimus." 


24         THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

tives  were  many  Greek  scholars  of  eminence,  such  as 
Chalcocondylas,  Andronicus,  Constantine  and  John  Las- 
caris,  who  quickly  made  the  schools  of  Italy  famous  by 
their  teaching.  Very  soon  the  fame  of  the  new  masters 
spread  to  other  countries,  and  students  from  all  parts  of 
the  Western  World  found  their  way  to  their  lecture- 
halls  in  Rome  and  the  other  teaching  centres  established 
in  the  chief  cities  of  Northern  Italy. 

First  among  the  scholars  who  repaired  thither  from 
England  to  drink  in  the  learning  of  ancient  Greece  and 
bring  back  to  their  country  the  new  spirit,  we  must 
place  two  Canterbury  monks  named  Selling  and  Hadley. 
Born  somewhere  about  1430,  William  Selling  became 
a  monk  at  Christchurch,  Canterbury,  somewhere  about 
1448.  There  seems  some  evidence  to  show  that  his 
family  name  was  Tyll,  and  that,  as  was  frequently,  if 
not  generally,  the  case,  on  his  entering  into  religion,  he 
adopted  the  name  of  Selling  from  his  birthplace,  some 
live  miles  from  Faversham  in  Kent.^  It  is  probable 
that  Selling,  after  having  passed  through  the  claustral 
school  at  Canterbury,  on  entering  the  Benedictine 
Order  was  sent  to  finish  his  studies  at  Canterbury 
College,  Oxford.  Here  he  certainly  was  in  1450, 
for  in  that  year  he  writes  a  long  and  what  is  described 
as  an  elegant  letter  as  a  student  at  Canterbury  Col- 
lege to  his   Prior,  Thomas  Goldstone,   at  Christchurch 

1  Leland  (Z?^  Scripioribiis  Britannicis,  482)  calls  him  Tilloeus,  and  this 
has  been  generally  translated  as  Tilly.  In  the  Canterbury  Letter  Books  (Rolls 
Series,  iii.  291)  it  appears  that  Prior  Selling  was  greatly  interested  in  a  boy 
named  Richard  Tyll.  In  1475,  Thomas  Goldstone,  the  warden  of  Canterbury 
Hall,  writes  to  Prior  Selling  about  new  clothes  and  a  tunic  and  other  expenses 
"scolaris  tui  Ricardi  Tyll."  In  the  same  volume,  p.  315,  is  a  letter  of 
fraternity  given  to  "  Agnes,  widow  of  William  Tyll,"  and  on  February  7,  1491, 
she  received  permission  to  be  buried  where  her  husband,  William  Tyll,  had 
been  interred,  "juxta  tumbam  sancti  Thomae  martyris." 


REVIVAL  OF   LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      25 

Canterbury.^  He  was  ordained  priest,  and  celebrated 
his  first  mass  at  Canterbury  in  September  1456.^ 

In  1464  William  Selling  obtained  leave  of  his  Prior 
and  convent  to  go  with  a  companion,  William  Hadley, 
to  study  in  the  foreign  universities  for  three  years,^ 
during  which  time  they  visited  and  sat  under  the  most 
celebrated  teachers  at  Padua,  Bologna,  and  Rome/ 
At  Bologna,  according  to  Leland,  Selling  was  the  pupil 
of  the  celebrated  Politian,  "with  whom,  on  account  of 
his  aptitude  in  acquiring  the  classical  elegance  of  ancient 
tongues,  he  formed  a  familiar  and  lasting  friendship."  ^ 
In  1466  and  1467  we  find  the  monks.  Selling  and  his 
companion  Hadley,  at  Bologna,  where  apparently  the 
readers  in  Greek  then  were  Lionorus  and  Andronicus," 
and  where,  on  the  22nd  March  1466,  Selling  took  his 
degree  in  theology,  his  companion  taking  his  in  the 
March  of  the  following  year.^ 

Of  this  period  of  work,  Leland  says  : — "  His  studies 
progressed.  He  indeed  imbued  himself  with  Greek  ; 
everywhere  he  industriously  and  at  great  expense 
collected  many  Greek  books.  Nor  was  his  care  less 
in  procuring  old  Latin  MSS.,  which  shortly  after  he 
took  with  him,  as  the  most  estimable  treasures,  on  his 
return  to  Canterbury."  *^ 

^  Canterbury  Lettei's  (Camden  Soc),  pp.  13,  15. 

^  C.  C.  C.  C.  MS.  417  f.  54d:  "Item  hoc  anno  videlicet  6  Kal.  Oct. 
D.  Willms  Selling  celebravit  primam  suam  missam  et  fuit  sacerdos  summa; 
missre  per  totam  illam  ebdomadam. " 

^  Litem  Cantiiar.  (Rolls  Series),  iii.  239. 

•*  Leland,  De  Scriptoribtis  Britannicis,  p.  4S2.  Cf,  also  Canterbury 
Letters  (Camden  Soc),  p.  xxvii. 

'  Leland,  ut  supra. 

•^  Umberto  Dallari,  /  roiuli  dei  Lettori,  &c.,  dello  studio  Bolognese  dal 
13840!  lygg,  p.  51. 

^  Serafino  Mazzetti,  Memorie  storiche  sopra  I'universita  di  Bologna,  p.  308. 

'^  Leland,  ut  supra. 


26         THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

His  obituary  notice  in  the  Christchurch  Necrology 
recites  not  only  his  excellence  in  learning,  classical  and 
theological,  but  what  he  had  done  to  make  his  monastery 
at  Canterbury  a  real  house  of  studies.  He  decorated 
the  library  over  the  Priests'  Chapel,  adding  to  the  books, 
and  assigned  it  "  for  the  use  of  those  specially  given  to 
study,  which  he  encouraged  and  cherished  with  wonder- 
ful watchfulness  and  affection."  The  eastern  cloister 
also  he  fitted  with  glass  and  new  desks,  "  called  carrels," 
for  the  use  of  the  studious  brethren."  ^ 

After  the  sojourn  of  the  two  Canterbury  monks  in 
Italy,  they  returned  to  their  home  at  Christchurch. 
Selling,  however,  did  not  remain  there  long,  for  on 
October  3,  1469,  we  find  him  setting  out  again  for 
Rome  ^  in  company  with  another  monk,  Reginald 
Goldstone,  also  an  Oxford  student.  This  visit  was 
on  business  connected  with  his  monastery,  and  did 
not  apparently  keep  him  long  away  from  England, 
for  there  is  evidence  that  sometime  before  the  election 
of  Selling  to  the  Priorship  at  Canterbury,  which  was 
in  1472,  he  was  again  at  his  monastery.  Characteristi- 
cally, his  letter  introducing  William  Worcester,  the 
antiquary,  to  a  merchant  of  Lucca  who  had  a  copy 
of  Livy's  Decades  for  sale,  manifests  his  great  and  con- 
tinued interest  in  classical  literature.^ 

1  B.  Mus.  Arundel  MS.  68,  f.  4.  The  Obit  in  Christchurch  MS.  D.  12, 
says  :  "  Sacroe  Theologise  Doctor.  Hie  in  divinis  agendis  multum  devotus  at 
lingua  Graaca  et  Latina  valde  eruditus.  .  .  .  O  quam  laudabiliter  se  habuit 
opera  merito  laudanda  manifesto  declarant." 

2  In  the  Canterbury  Registers  (Reg.  R.)  there  is  a  record  which  evidently 
relates  to  Selling's  previous  stay  in  Rome  as  a  student.  On  October  3,  1469, 
the  date  of  SeUing's  second  departure  for  Rome,  the  Prior  and  convent  of 
Christchurch  granted  a  letter  to  Pietro  dei  Milleni,  a  citizen  of  Rome,  making 
him  a  cotifrater  of  the  monastery  in  return  for  the  kindness  shown  to  Dr. 
William  Selling,  when  in  the  Eternal  City.  This  letter,  doubtless,  Selling 
carried  with  him  in  1469. 

^   The  Old  English  Bible  and  other  Essays,  p.  306. 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      27 

At  Canterbury,  Selling  must  have  established  the 
teaching  of  Greek  on  systematic  hnes,  and  it  is  certainly 
from  this  monastic  school  as  a  centre,  that  the  study 
spread  to  other  parts  of  England,  William  Worcester, 
keenly  alive  to  the  classical  revival,  as  his  note-books 
show,  tells  us  of  "  certain  Greek  terminations  as  taught 
by  Doctor  Selling  of  Christchurch,  Canterbury,"  and 
likewise  sets  down  the  pronunciation  of  the  Greek  vowels 
with  examples  evidently  on  the  same  authority.^ 

Selling's  long  priorship,  extending  from  1472  to 
1495,  would  have  enabled  him  to  consolidate  the  work 
of  this  literary  renaissance  which  he  had  so  much  at 
heart.'^  The  most  celebrated  of  all  his  pupils  was,  of 
course,  Linacre.  Born,  according  to  Caius,  at  Canter- 
bury, he  received  his  first  instruction  in  the  monastic 
school  there,  and  his  first  lessons  in  the  classics  and 
Greek  from  Selling  himself.  Probably  through  the  per- 
sonal interest  taken  in  this  youth  of  great  promise  by 
Prior  Selling,  he  was  sent  to  Oxford  about  1480. 
Those  who  have  seriously  examined  the  matter  believe 
that  the  first  years  of  his  Oxford  life  were  spent  by 
Linacre  at  the  Canterbury  College,  which  was  con- 
nected with  Christchurch  monastery,  and  which,  though 
primarily  intended  for  monks,  also  afforded  a  place  of 
quiet  study  to  others  who  were  able  to  obtain  admis- 


^  B.  Mus.  Cotton  MS.  Julius  F.  vii.,  f.  Ii8. 

'  One  of  Prior  Selling's  first  acts  of  administration  was  apparently  to  pro- 
cure a  master  for  the  grammar  school  at  Canterbury.  He  writes  to  the  Arch- 
bishop :  "  Also  please  it  your  good  faderhood  to  have  in  knowledge  that 
according  to  your  commandment,  I  have  provided  for  a  schoolmaster  for  your 
gramerscole  in  Canterbury,  the  which  hath  lately  taught  gramer  at  Wynchester 
and  atte  Seynt  Antonyes  in  London.  That,  as  I  trust  to  God,  shall  so  guide 
him  that  it  shall  be  worship  and  pleasure  to  your  Lordship  and  profit  and 
encreas  to  them  that  he  shall  have  in  governance." — Hist.  A/SS.  Com.  9th 
Report,  App.  p.  105. 


28         THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

sion.^  Thus,  in  later  years,  Sir  Thomas  More,  no 
doubt  through  his  father's  connection  with  the  monas- 
tery of  Christchurch,  Canterbury,  of  which  house  he 
was  a  "  confrater,"  became  a  student  at  the  monks' 
college  at  Oxford.  In  later  years  Sir  Thomas  himself, 
when  Chancellor  of  England,  perpetuated  the  memory 
of  his  life-long  connection  with  the  monks  of  Canter- 
bury by  enrolling  his  name  also  on  the  fraternity  lists 
of  that  house. 

Linacre,  in  1484,  became  a  Fellow  of  All  Souls' 
College,  but  evidently  he  did  not  lose  touch  with  his 
old  friends  at  Canterbury,  for,  in  i486.  Prior  Selling 
being  appointed  one  of  the  ambassadors  of  Henry  VII. 
to  the  Pope,  he  invited  his  former  pupil  to  accompany 
him  to  Italy,  in  order  to  profit  by  the  teaching  of  the 
great  humanist  masters  at  the  universities  there.  Prior 
Selling  took  him  probably  as  far  as  Florence,  and 
introduced  him  to  his  own  old  master  and  friend, 
Angelo  Politian,  who  was  then  engaged  in  instructing 
the  children  of  Lorenzo  de  Medici.  Through  Selling's 
interest,  Linacre  was  permitted  to  share  in  their  lessons, 
and  there  are  letters  showing  that  the  younger  son, 
when  in  after  years  he  became  Pope,  as  Leo  X.,  was 
not  unmindful  of  his  early  companionship  with  the 
English  scholar.-     From   Politian,   Linacre  acquired  a 

1  I.  Noble  Johnson,  Life  of  Linacre,  p.  ii.  Among  the  great  benefactors 
to  Canterbury  College,  Oxford,  was  Doctor  Thomas  Chaundeler,  Warden  of 
New  College.  In  1473,  the  year  after  the  election  of  Prior  Selling,  the 
Chapter  of  Christchurch,  Canterbury,  passed  a  resolution  that,  in  memory  of 
his  great  benefits  to  them,  his  name  should  be  mentioned  daily  in  the  con- 
ventual mass  at  Canterbury,  and  that  at  dinner  each  day  at  Oxford  he  should 
be  named  as  founder. 

2  Galeni,  De  Temperamentis  libri  tres,  Thoma  Linacio  interpretante,  is 
dedicated  to  Pope  Leo  X.,  with  a  letter  from  Linacre  dated  1521.  '|The 
widow's  mite  was  approved  by  Him  whose  vicar  on  earth"  Pope  Leo  is,  so 
this  book  is  only  intended  to  recall  common  studies,  though  in  itself  of  little 
interest  to  one  having  the  care  of  the  world. 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      29 

purity  of  style  in  Latin  which  makes  him  celebrated 
even  among  the  celebrated  men  of  his  time.  Greek 
he  learnt  from  Demetrius  Chalcocondylas,  who  was 
then,  like  Politian,  engaged  in  teaching  the  children  of 
Lorenzo  de  Medici.^ 

From  Florence,  Linacre  passed  on  to  Rome,  where 
he  gained  many  friends  among  the  great  humanists  of 
the  day.  One  day,  when  examining  the  manuscripts 
of  the  Vatican  Library  for  classics,  and  engaged  in 
reading  the  Phcedo  of  Plato,  Hermolaus  Barbarus  came 
up  and  politely  expressed  his  belief  that  the  youth  had 
no  claim,  as  he  had  himself,  to  the  title  Barbarus,  if 
it  were  lawful  to  judge  from  his  choice  of  a  book. 
Linacre  at  once,  from  the  happy  compliment,  recognised 
the  speaker,  and  this  chance  interview  led  to  a  life- 
long friendship  between  the  Englishman  and  one  of  the 
great  masters  of  classical  literature." 

After  Linacre  had  been  in  Italy  for  a  year  or  more, 
a  youth  whom  he  had  known  at  Oxford,  William  Grocyn, 
was  induced  to  come  and  share  with  him  the  benefit  of 
the  training  in  literature  then  to  be  obtained  only  in 
Italy.  On  his  return  in  1492,  Grocyn  became  lecturer 
at  Exeter  College,  Oxford,  and  among  his  pupils  in 
Greek  were  Sir  Thomas  More^  and  Erasmus.  He  was 
a  graduate  in  theology,  and  was  chosen  by  Dean  Colet 
to  give  lectures  at  St.  Paul's  and  subsequently  appointed 

^  G.  Lilii,  Elogia,  ed.  P.  Jovii,  p.  91.  ^  Ibid.,  Ixiii.  p.  145. 

'  Sir  Thomas  More  writing  to  Colet  says  :  "  I  pass  my  time  here  (at 
Oxford)  with  Grocyn,  Linacre,  and  our  (George)  Lilly  :  the  first  as  you 
know  the  only  master  of  my  life,  when  you  are  absent ;  the  second,  the 
director  of  my  studies  ;  the  third,  my  dearest  companion  in  all  the  affairs 
of  life"  (J.  Stapleton,  Ttxs  Thoincr,  p.  165.)  Another  constant  companion 
of  More  at  Oxford  was  Cuthbert  Tunstall,  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of 
his  day,  afterwards  in  succession  Bishop  of  London  and  Durham.  Tunstall 
dedicated  to  More  his  tract  De  arte  suppuiandt,  which  he  printed  at  Paris 
in  1529.- 


30         THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

by  Archbishop  Warham,  Master  or  Guardian  of  the 
collegiate  church  of  Maidstone.^  Erasmus  describes 
him  as  "a  man  of  most  rigidly  upright  life,  almost 
superstitiously  observant  of  ecclesiastical  custom,  versed 
in  every  nicety  of  scholastic  theology,  by  nature  of  the 
most  acute  judgment,  and,  in  a  word,  fully  instructed 
in  every  kind  of  learning."  ^ 

Linacre,  after  a  distinguished  course  in  the  medical 
schools  of  Padua,  returned  to  Oxford,  and  in  1501 
became  tutor  to  Prince  Arthur.  On  the  accession  of 
Henry  VIII.  he  was  appointed  physician  to  the  court, 
and  could  count  all  the  distinguished  men  of  the  day, 
Wolsey,  Warham,  Fox,  and  the  rest,  among  his  patients; 
and  Erasmus,  Sir  Thomas  More,  and  Queen  Mary 
among  his  pupils  in  letters.  In  his  early  life,  entering 
the  clerical  state,  he  had  held  ecclesiastical  preferment  ; 
in  advanced  years  he  received  priest's  orders,  and  de- 
voted the  evening  of  his  life  to  a  pious  preparation  for 
his  end.^ 

Grocyn  and  Linacre  are  usually  regarded  as  the 
pioneers  of  the  revival  of  letters.  But,  as  already 
pointed  out,  the  first  to  cross  the  Alps  from  England 
in  search  for  the  new  light,  to  convey  it  back  to  Eng- 
land, and  to  hand  it  on  to  Grocyn  and  Linacre,  were 
William  Selling,  and  his  companion,  William  Hadley, 
Thus,  the  real  pioneers  in  the  English  renaissance  were 
the  two  monks  of  Christchurch,  and,  some  years  after, 
the  two  ecclesiastics,  Grocyn  and  Linacre. 

Selling,  even  after  his  election  to  the  priorship  of 
Canterbury,  continued  to  occupy  a  distinguished  place 
both  in  the  political  world  and  in  the  world  of  letters. 

^   Reg.  Warham,  in  Knight's  Erasmus,  p.  22  note. 

'  Encyclop.  Erit.  sud  nomine.  "^  Ibid, 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      31 

He  was  chosen,  though  only  the  fifth  member  of  the 
embassy  sent  by  Henry  VII.  on  his  accession  to  the 
Pope,  to  act  as  orator,  and  in  that  capacity  dehvered 
a  Latin  oration  before  the  Pope  and  Cardinals.^ 

He  was  also  and  subsequently  sent  with  others  by 
Henry  on  an  embassy  to  the  French  king,  in  which 
he  also  fulfilled  the  function  of  spokesman,  making 
what  is  described  as  "  a  most  elegant  oration." 

That  as  Prior,  Selling  kept  up  his  interest  in  the 
literary  revival  is  clear  from  the  terms  of  his  obituary 
notice.  There  exists,  moreover,  a  translation  made 
by  him  after  his  return  from  his  embassy  to  Rome, 
when  he  took  his  youthful  protege,  Linacre,  and  placed 
him  under  Chalcocondylas  and  Politian  in  Florence, 
which  seems  to  prove  that  the  renewal  of  his  intimacy 
with  the  great  humanist  masters  of  Italy  had  inspired 
him  with  a  desire  to  continue  his  literary  work.  Even 
in  the  midst  of  constant  calls  upon  him,  which  the  high 
office  of  Prior  of  Canterbury  necessitated,  he  found  time 
to  translate  a  sermon  of  St.  John  Chrysostom  from  the 
Greek,  two  copies  of  which  still  remain  in  the  British 
Museum.^  This  is  dated  1488  ;  and  it  is  probably 
the  first  example  of  any  Greek  work  put  into  Latin 
in  England  in  the  early  days  of  the  English  renaissance 
of  letters.  The  very  volume  (Add.  MS.  15,673)  in 
which  one  copy  of  this  translation  is  found  shows 
by  the  style  of  the  writing,  and  other  indications,  the 
Italian   influences   at   work  in   Canterbury  in  the  time 

^  Ugo  Balzani,  Uii!  atiibasciata  inglesc  a  Noma,  Societa  Romana  di 
storia  patria,  iii.  p.  175  seqq.  Of  this  an  epitome  is  given  in  Bacon's 
Henry  VII.,  p.  95.  Count  Ugo  Balzani  says  :  "  II  prior  di  Canterbury  sembra 
essere  veramente  stato  I'anima  dell'  ambasciata.''  Burchardus,  Kenan  Ur- 
banariim  Commetitarii  (ed.  Thuasne),  i.  p.  257,  gives  a  full  account  of  the 
reception  of  this  embassy  in  Rome  and  by  the  Pope. 

2  Ilarl.  MS.  6237,  and  Add,  MS.  15,673. 


32         THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

of  Selling's  succession  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century  ;  and  also  the  intercourse  which  the  monastery 
there  kept  up  with  the  foreign  humanists.^ 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  more  about  the  precious 
volumes  of  the  classics  and  the  other  manuscripts  which 
Selling  collected  on  his  travels.  Many  of  them  perished, 
with  that  most  rare  work,  Cicero's  De  Republica,  in 
the  fire  caused  by  the  carelessness  of  some  of  Henry 
VIII.'s  visitors  on  the  eve  of  the  dissolution  of  Selling's 
old  monastery  at  Canterbury.  Some,  like  the  great 
Greek  commentaries  of  St.  Cyril  on  the  Prophets,  were 
rescued  half  burnt  from  the  flames  ;  "  others,  by  some 
good  chance,"  says  Leland,  "had  been  removed  ;  amongst 
these  were  the  commentaries  of  St.  Basil  the  Great  on 
Isaias,  the  works  of  Synesius  and  other  Greek  codices."^ 
Quite  recently  it  has  been  recognised  that  the  complete 
Homer  and  the  plays  of  Euripides  in  Corpus  Christi 
College  library  at  Cambridge,  which  tradition  had 
associated  with  the  name  of  Archbishop  Theodore  in 
the  seventh  century,  are  in  reality  both  fifteenth-century 
manuscripts  ;  and  as  they  formed,  undoubtedly,  part  of 
the  library  at  Christchurch,  Canterbury,  it  is  hardly  too 
much  to  suppose  that  they  were  some  of  the  treasures 
brought  back  by  Prior  Selling  from  Italy.  The  same 
may  probably  be  said  of  a  Livy,  a  fifteenth-century 
Greek  Psalter,  and  a  copy  of  the  Psalms  in  Hebrew  and 
Latin,  in  Trinity  College  Library.^ 

^  In  the  same  beautifully  written  volume  is  a  printed  tract  addressed  to  the 
Venetian  Senate  in  147 1  against  princes  taking  church  property.  The  tract 
had  been  sent  to  the  Prior  of  Christchurch  by  Christopher  Urswick,  with  a 
letter,  in  which,  to  induce  him  to  read  it,  he  says  it  is  approved  by  Hermolaus 
Barbarus  and  Guarini.  Christopher  Urswick  was  almoner  to  Henry  VII., 
and  to  him  Erasmus  dedicated  three  of  his  works. 

^  Leland,  De  Scriptoribus  Britaitnicis,  482. 

3  This  information  I  owe  to  the  kindness  of  Dr.  Montague  James. 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      33 

Prior  Selling's  influence,  moreover,  extended  beyond 
the  walls  of  his  own  house,  and  can  be  traced  to  others 
besides  his  old  pupil,  and,  as  some  think,  relative,  Lin- 
acre.  Among  the  friendships  he  had  formed  whilst  at 
Padua  was  that  of  a  young  ecclesiastical  student,  Thomas 
Langton,  with  whom  he  was  subsequently  at  Rome. 
Langton  was  employed  in  diplomatic  business  by 
King  Edward  IV.,  and  whilst  in  France,  through  his 
friendship  for  Prior  Selling,  obtained  some  favour  from 
the  French  king  for  the  monastery  of  Canterbury.  In 
return  for  this  the  monks  offered  him  a  living  in 
London.^  Prior  Selling,  on  one  occasion  at  leasts 
drafted  the  sermon  which  Dr.  Langton  was  to  deliver 
as  prolocutor  in  the  Convocation  of  the  Canterbury 
Province.^  In  1483  Langton  became  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, and  "  such  was  his  love  of  letters "  that  he 
established  in  his  own  house  a  scJiola  domestica  for  boys, 
and  himself  used  to  preside  in  the  evening  at  the  lessons. 
One  youth  especially  attracted  his  attention  by  his 
music.  This  was  Richard  Pace,  afterwards  renowned 
as  a  classical  scholar  and  diplomatist.  Bishop  Langton 
recognised  his  abilities,  and  forthwith  despatched  him 
to  Italy,  paying  all  his  expenses  at  the  universities  of 
Padua    and    Rome.^      At  the  former   place,    he    says : 

^  Canterbury  Letters  (Camden  Soc),  p.  xxvii. 

-  Ibid.,  p.  36,  a  letter  in  which  Dr.  Langton  asks  Prior  Selling  to  "attend 
to  the  drawing  of  it."     The  draft  sermon  is  in  Cleop.  A.  iii. 

■^  Richard  Pace,  De  Friictu,  p.  27.  The  work  De  Fr-iictu  was  composed 
at  Constance,  where  Pace  was  ambassador,  and  where  he  had  met  his  old 
master,  Paul  Bombasius.  He  dedicates  the  tract  to  Colet,  who  had  done  so 
much  to  introduce  true  classical  Latin  into  England,  in  place  of  the  barbarous 
language  formerly  used.  The  work  was  suggested  to  him  by  a  conversation 
he  had  in  England  two  years  before,  on  his  return  from  Rome,  with  a  gentle- 
man he  met  at  dinner,  who  strongly  objected  to  a  literary  education  for  his 
children,  on  the  ground  that  he  disapproved  of  certain  expressions  made  use  of 
by  Erasmus.  The  tract  shows  on  what  a  very  intimate  footing  Pace  was  with 
Bombasius. 

C 


34        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

^'  When  as  a  youth  I  began  to  work  at  my  humanities, 
I  was  assisted  by  Cuthbert  Tunstall  and  William 
Latimer,  men  most  illustrious  and  excelling  in  every 
branch  of  learning,  whose  prudence,  probity,  and 
integrity  were  such  that  it  were  hard  to  say  whether 
their  learning  excelled  their  high  moral  character,  or 
their  uprightness  their  learning."  ^ 

At  this  university  he  was  taught  by  Leonicus  and 
by  Leonicenus,  the  friend  and  correspondent  of  Politian : 
"  Men,"  he  says,  as  being  unable  to  give  higher  praise, 
*'  like  Tunstall  and  Latimer."  ^  Passing  on  to  Bologna 
he  sat  at  the  feet  of  Paul  Bombasius,  "  who  was  then 
explaining  every  best  author  to  large  audiences."  Sub- 
sequently, at  Rome,  he  formed  a  lasting  friendship  with 
William  Stokesley,  whom  he  describes  as  "  his  best 
friend  on  earth  ;  a  man  of  the  keenest  judgment,  excel- 
lent, and  indeed  marvellous,  in  theology  and  philo- 
sophy, and  not  only  skilled  in  Greek  and  Latin,  but 
possessed  of  some  knowledge  of  Hebrew,"  whose  great 
regret  was  that  he  had  not  earlier  in  life  realised  the 
power  of  the  Greek  language.^  At  Ferrara,  too.  Pace 
first  met  Erasmus,  and  he  warmly  acknowledges  his  in- 
debtedness to  the  influence  of  this  great  humanist. 

In  1509,  Richard  Pace  accompanied  Cardinal  Bain- 
bridge  to  Rome,  and  was  with  him  when  the  cardinal 
died,  or  was  murdered,  there  in  15 14.  Whilst  in  the 
Eternal  City,  "  urged  to  the  study  by  that  most  upright 
and  learned  man,  William  Latimer,"  he  searched  the 
Pope's  library  for  books  of  music,  and  found  a  great 
number  of  works  on  the  subject.     The  cardinal's  death 

^  De  Friictn,  p.  99.  Pace  published  at  Venice  in  1522,  PliUarchi  Cheronei 
Opuscula,  and  dedicated  the  work  to  Bishop  Tunstall.  He  reminds  the  bishop 
of  their  old  student  days,  and  says  the  translation  has  been  examined  by  their 
"old  master,  Nicholas  Leonicus."  -  Ibid.  ■'  Ibid. 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      35 

put  a  stop  to  his  investigations  ;  but  he  had  seen  suffi- 
cient to  be  able  to  say  that  to  study  the  matter  properly 
a  man  must  know  Greek  and  get  to  the  library  of  the 
Pope,  where  there  were  many  and  the  best  books  on 
music.  "  But,"  he  adds,  "  I  venture  to  say  this,  our 
English  music,  if  any  one  will  critically  examine  into 
the  matter,  will  be  found  to  display  the  greatest  subtlety 
of  mind,  especially  in  what  is  called  the  introduction  of 
harmonies,  and  in  this  matter  to  excel  ancient  music."  ^ 
It  is  unnecessary  to  follow  in  any  detail  the  story 
of  the  general  literary  revival  in  England.  Beginning 
with  Selling,  the  movement  continued  to  progress  down 
to  the  very  eve  of  the  religious  disputes.  That  there  was 
opposition  on  the  part  of  some  who  regarded  the  stir- 
ring of  the  waters  with  suspicion  was  inevitable.  More 
especially  was  this  the  case  because  during  the  course 
of  the  literary  revival  there  rose  the  storm  of  the  great 
religious  revolt  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  because  the 
practical  paganism  which  had  resulted  from  the  move- 
ment in  Italy  was  perhaps  not  unnaturally  supposed  by 
the  timorous  to  be  a  necessary  consequence  of  a  return 
to  the  study  of  the  classics  of  Greece  and  Rome.  The 
opposition  sprung  generally  from  a  misunderstanding, 
and  "  not  so  much  from  any  hostility  to  Greek  itself  as 
from  an  indifference  to  any  learning."  This  Sir  Thomas 
More  expressly  declares  when  writing  to  urge  the  Ox- 
ford authorities  to  repress  a  band  of  giddy  people  who, 
calling  themselves  Trojans,  made  it  their  duty  to  fight 
against  the  Grecians.  It  is  true  also  that  the  pulpit  was 
at  times  brought  into  requisition  to  decry  "  not  only 
Greek    and     Latin    studies,"    but    liberal    education    of 

'  Ibid.,  p.  51.     "  Quas  vocant  proportionum  inducliones  .  .   ,  antiquitatem 

superasse." 


36        THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

any  kind.^  But,  so  far  as  England  is  concerned,  this 
opposition  to  the  revival  of  letters,  even  on  the  score  of 
the  danger  likely  to  come  either  to  faith  or  morals,  was, 
when  all  is  said,  slight,  and  through  the  influence  of 
More,  Fisher,  and  the  king  himself,  easily  subdued.^ 
The  main  fact,  moreover,  cannot  be  gainsaid,  namely, 
that  the  chief  ecclesiastics  of  the  day,  Wolsey,  Warham, 
Fisher,  Tunstall,  Langton,  Stokesley,  Fox,  Selling, 
Grocyn,  Whitford,  Linacre,  Colet,  Pace,  William  Lati- 
mer,   and    Thomas    Lupset,^   to   name  only   the    most 

1  More  to  the  University  of  Oxford,  in  Knight's  Erasmus,  p.  31. 

^  Bishop  Fisher's  love  and  zeal  for  learning  is  notorious.  He  did  all  in  his 
power  to  assist  in  the  foundation  of  schools  of  sound  learning  at  Cambridge, 
and  especially  to  encourage  the  study  of  Greek.  Richard  Croke,  the  protege 
of  Archbishop  V^arhani  and  Bishop  Fisher,  after  teaching  Greek  in  1516  at 
Leipzig,  was  sent  by  Fisher  in  1519  to  Cambridge  to  urge  the  utility  of  Greek 
studies  at  that  university.  In  the  Orationes  he  delivered  there,  after  speaking 
of  the  importance  of  Greek  for  all  Biblical  study,  he  says  that  Oxford  had 
taken  up  the  work  with  great  avidity,  since  "they  have  there  as'their  patrons 
besides  the  Cardinal  (Wolsey),  Canterbury  (Warham),  and  Winchester,  all 
the  other  English  bishops  except  the  one  who  has  always  been  your  great  stay 
and  helper,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  and  the  Bishop  of  Ely."  It  was  entirely 
owing  to  Bishop  Fisher's  generosity,  and  at  his  special  request,  that  Croke  had 
gone  to  Cambridge  rather  than  to  Oxford,  whither  his  connection  with  Warham, 
More,  Linacre,  and  Grocyn  would  have  led  him,  in  order  to  carry  on  the  work 
begun  by  Erasmus. 

*  Thomas  Lupset  was  educated  by  Colet,  and  learnt  his  Latin  and  Greek 
under  William  Lilly,  going  afterwards  to  Oxford.  There  he  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Ludovico  Vives,  and  at  his  exhortation  went  to  Italy.  He  joined 
Reginald  Pole  in  his  studies  at  Padua,  and  on  his  return,  after  acting  as 
Thomas  Winter's  tutor  in  Paris,  he  held  a  position  first  as  a  teacher  and  then  in 
Cardinal  Wolsey's  household.  In  his  Exhortation  to  Youiii;  Men,  persuading 
them  to  a  good  life,  "  written  at  More,  a  place  of  my  Lord  Cardinal's,"  in  1529, 
he  gives  a  charming  account  of  his  relation  with  a  former  pupil.  *'  It  hap- 
peneth,"  he  says,  "at  this  time  (my  heartily  beloved  Edmund)  that  I  am  in 
such  a  place  where  I  have  no  manner  of  books  with  me  to  pass  the  time  after 
my  manner  and  custom.  And  though  I  had  here  with  me  plenty  of  books,  yet 
the  place  suffereth  me  not  to  spend  in  them  any  study.  For  you  shall  under- 
stand that  I  lie  waiting  on  my  Lord  Cardinal,  whose  hours  I  must  observe, 
to  be  always  at  hand  lest  I  be  called  when  I  am  not  bye,  which  would  be 
straight  taken  for  a  fault  of  great  negligence.  I  am  well  satiated  with  the  be- 
holding of  these  gay  hangings  that  garnish  here  every  wall."  As  a  relief  he 
turns  to  address  his  young  friend  Edmund.     Probably  Edmund  doesn't  under- 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      37 

distinguished,  were  not  only  ardent  humanists,  but 
thorough  and  practical  churchmen.  Of  the  laymen, 
whether  foreigners  or  Englishmen,  whose  names  are 
associated  with  the  renaissance  of  letters  in  this  country, 
such  as,  for  example,  the  distinguished  scholar  Ludovico 
Vives,  the  two  Lillys,  Sir  Thomas  More,  John  Clement,^ 
and  other  members  of  More's  family,  there  can  be  no 
shadow  of  doubt  about  their  dispositions  towards  the 
ancient  ecclesiastical  regime.  A  Venetian  traveller,  in 
1500,  thus  records  what  he  had  noticed  as  to  the  atti- 
tude of  ecclesiastics  generally  towards  learning: — "Few, 

stand  his  affection,  because  he  had  always  acted  on  the  principle  he  has  "been 
taught,  that  the  master  never  hurteth  his  scholar  more  than  when  he  uttereth 
and  sheweth  by  cherishing  and  cokering  the  love  he  beareth  to  his  scholars." 
Edmund  is  now  "of  age,  and  also  by  the  common  board  of  houseling  admitted 
into  the  number  of  men,  and  to  be  no  more  in  the  company  of  children,"  and 
so  now  he  can  make  known  his  affection.  "  This  mind  had  I  to  my  friend 
Andrew  Smith,  whose  son  Christopher,  your  fellow,  I  ever  took  for  my  son. 
...  If  you  will  call  to  your  mind  all  the  frays  between  you  and  me,  or  me 
and  Smith,  you  will  find  that  they  were  all  out  of  my  care  for  '  your  manners,' 
When  I  saw  certain  fantasies  in  you  or  him  that  jarred  from  true  opinions,  the 
which  true  opinions,  above  all  learning,  I  would  have  masters  ever  teach  their 
scholars.     Wherefore,  my  good  withipol,  take  heed  of  my  lesson." 

^  John  Clement,  a  protege  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  was  afterwards  a  doctor 
of  renown  not  only  in  medicine  but  in  languages.  He  had  been  a  member 
of  More's  household,  which  Erasmus  speaks  of  as  "schola  et  gymnasium 
Christiance  religionis."  He  is  named  at  the  beginning  of  the  Eutopia,  and 
Sir  Thomas,  in  writing  to  Erasmus,  says  that  Linacre  declared  that  he  had  had 
no  pupil  at  Oxford  equal  to  him.  John  Clement  translated  several  ancient  Greek 
authors  into  Latin,  amongst  others  many  letters  of  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen  and 
the  Homilies  of  Nicephorus  Callistus  on  the  Saints  of  the  Greek  Calendar. 
Stapleton,  in  his  Tres  Thovicc  (p.  250),  says  he  had  himself  seen  and  examined 
with  the  originals  these  two  voluminous  translations  at  the  request  of  John 
Clement  himself.  He  had  married  Margaret,  the  ward  of  Sir  Thomas  More, 
and  in  the  most  difficult  places  of  his  translation  he  was  helped  by  his  wife, 
who,  with  the  daughters  of  Sir  Thomas,  had  been  his  disciple  and  knew 
Greek  well.  Mary  Roper,  More's  grand-daughter,  and  the  daughter  of 
Margaret  Roper,  translated  Eusebius's  History  from  Greek  into  Latin,  but  it 
was  never  published,  because  Bishop  Christopherson  had  been  at  work  on  a 
similar  translation.  On  the  change  of  religion  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  John 
Clement  and  his  wife,  with  the  Ropers,  took  refuge  in  the  Low  Countries. 
Paulus  Jovius,  in  his  Descriptio  Britannia,  p.  13,  speaks  of  all  three  daughters 
of  Sir  Thomas  More  being  celebrated  for  their  knowledge  of  Latin. 


38         THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

excepting  the  clergy,  are  addicted  to  the  study  of  letters, 
and  this  is  the  reason  why  any  one  who  has  any  learn- 
ing, though  he  may  be  a  layman,  is  called  a  clei%.  And 
yet  they  have  great  advantages  for  study,  there  being 
two  general  universities  in  the  kingdom,  Oxford  and 
Cambridge,  in  which  there  are  many  colleges  founded 
for  the  maintenance  of  poor  scholars.  And  your  mag- 
nificence (the  Doge  of  Venice)  lodged  at  one  named 
Magdalen,  in  the  University  of  Oxford,  of  which,  as  the 
founders  having  been  prelates,  so  the  scholars  also  are 
ecclesiastics." 

It  was  in  England,  and  almost  entirely  among  the 
ecclesiastics  of  England,  that  Erasmus  found  his  chief 
support.  *'  This  England  of  yours,"  he  writes  to  Colet 
in  1498,  "this  England,  dear  to  me  on  many  accounts, 
is  above  all  most  beloved  because  it  abounds  in  what 
to  me  is  the  best  of  all,  men  deeply  learned  in  letters."  ^ 
Nor  did  he  change  his  opinion  on  a  closer  acquaint- 
ance. In  1 5 17,  to  Richard  Pace  he  wrote  from 
Louvain  in  regret  at  leaving  a  country  which  he  had 
come  to  regard  as  the  best  hope  of  the  literary  revival: — 
"  Oh,  how  truly  happy  is  your  land  of  England,  the 
seat  and  stronghold  of  the  best  studies  and  the  highest 
virtue  !  I  congratulate  you,  my  friend  Pace,  on  having 
such  a  king,  and  I  congratulate  the  king  whose  country 
is  rendered  illustrious  by  so  many  brilliant  men  of 
ability.  On  both  scores  I  congratulate  this  England 
of  yours,  for  though  fortunate  for  many  other  reasons, 
on  this  score  no  other  land  can  compete  with  it."  '^ 

When  William  Latimer  said  in  15 18  that  Bishop 
Fisher  wished  to  study  Greek  for  Biblical  purposes, 
and  that  he  thought  of  trying  to  get  a  master  from  Italy, 

^  Erasmi  Opera  (ed.  1703),  Col.  40.  -  Ibid.,  Ep.  241. 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      39 

Erasmus,  whilst  applauding  the  bishop's  intention  as 
likely  to  encourage  younger  men  to  take  up  the 
study,  told  Latimer  that  such  men  were  not  easy  to  find 
in  Italy.  "  If  I  may  openly  say  my  mind,"  he  adds, 
"  if  I  had  Linacre,  or  Tunstall,  for  a  master  (for  of  your- 
self I  say  nothing),  I  would  not  wish  for  any  Italian."  ^ 

Not  to  go  into  more  lengthy  details,  there  is,  it 
must  be  admitted,  abundant  evidence  to  show  that  there 
was  in  the  religious  houses  of  England,  no  less  than  in 
the  universities,  a  stirring  of  the  waters,  and  a  readi- 
ness to  profit  by  the  real  advance  made  in  education 
and  scholarship.  The  name  of  Prior  Charnock,  the 
friend  of  Colet  and  Erasmus  at  Oxford,  is  known  to 
all.  But  there  are  others  with  even  greater  claim  than 
he  to  be  considered  leaders  in  the  movement.  There 
is  distinct  evidence  of  scholarship  at  Reading,  at  Ram- 
sey, at  Glastonbury,  and  elsewhere."  The  last-named 
house,  Glastonbury,  was  ruled  by  Abbot  Bere,  to 
whose  criticism  Erasmus  desired  to  submit  his  transla- 
tion of  the  New  Testament  from  the  Greek.  Bere 
himself  had  passed  some  time,  with  distinction,  in  Italy, 
had  been  sent  on  more  than  one  embassy  by  the  king, 
and  had  been  chosen  by  Henry  VII.  to  invest  the  Duke 
of  Urbino  with  the  Order  of  the  Garter,  and  to  make 
the  required  oration  on  that  occasion.^  He  had  given 
other  evidence  also  of  the  way  the  new  spirit  that  had 

1  Ibid.,  Ep.  363. 

2  To  take  one  example,  Thomas  Millyng,  who  as  Bishop  of  Hereford 
died  in  1492,  had  studied  at  Gloucester  Hall,  Oxford,  as  a  monk  of  West- 
minster. During  the  old  age  of  Abbot  Fleet,  of  Westminster,  he  governed 
the  monastery,  and  became  its  abbot  in  1465.  He  was  noted  for  his  love  of 
studies,  and  especially  for  his  knowledge  of  Greek.  This,  says  the  writer  of  his 
brief  life  in  the  National  Biographical  Dictionary,  was  "a  rare  accomplish- 
ment for  monks  in  those  days."  He  might  have  added,  and  for  any  one 
else  ! 

^  Dennistoun,  Memorials 0/ the  Dukes  of  Urbino,  iii.,  pp.  415  seqq. 


40         THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

been  enkindled  in  Italy  had  entered  into  his  soul.  It 
was  through  Abbot  Bere's  generosity  that  Richard  Pace, 
whom  Erasmus  calls  "  the  half  of  his  soul,"  was  enabled 
to  pursue  his  studies  in  Italy.^  Glastonbury  was  ap- 
parently a  soil  well  prepared  for  the  seed-time,  for  even 
in  the  days  of  Abbot  Bere's  predecessor.  Abbot  John 
Selwood,  there  is  evidence  to  show  that  the  religious 
were  not  altogether  out  of  touch  with  the  movement. 
The  abbot  himself  presented  one  of  the  monks  with 
a  copy  of  John  Free's  translation  from  the  Greek 
of  Synesius  de  laude  Calvitii.  The  volume  is  written 
by  an  Italian  scribe,  and  contains  in  the  introductory 
matter  a  letter  to  the  translator  from  Omnibonus  Leoni- 
censis,  dated  at  Vicenza  in  1461,  as  well  as  a  preface 
or  letter  by  Free  to  John  Tiptoft,  Earl  of  Worcester.^ 

At  St.  Augustine's,  Canterbury,  also,  we  find,  even 
amid  the  ruins  of  its  desolation,  traces  of  the  same 
spirit  which  pervaded  the  neighbouring  cloister  of 
Christchurch.  The  antiquary  Twyne  declares  that  he 
had  been  intimately  acquainted  with  the  last  abbot, 
whom  he  knew  to  have  been  deeply  interested  in  the 
literary  movement.  He  describes  his  friend  as  often 
manifesting  in  conversation  his  interest  in  and  know- 
ledge of  the  ancient  classical   authors.      He   says  that 

^  Erasmus  to  Abbot  Bere.     Opera,  Ep.  700. 

"^  MS.  Bodl.  80.  It  is  the  autograph  copy  of  Free,  cf.  J.  W,  Williams, 
Somerset  Mediaval  Libraries,  p.  87,  It  was  Abbot  Bere  who,  in  1506,  pre- 
sented John  Claymond,  the  learned  Greek  scholar,  to  his  first  benefice  of 
Westmonkton,  in  the  county  of  Somerset.  In  1516  Claymond  became  first 
President  of  Corpus  Christi  College,  Oxford,  often  after  signing  himself, 
EucharisticE  servus.  Dr.  Claymond  procured  for  his  college  several  Greek 
manuscripts  which  had  belonged  to  Grocyn  and  Linacre,  which  are  still 
possessed  by  it.  At  the  end  of  MS.  XXIII. ,  which  is  a  volume  containing 
ninety  homilies  of  St.  John  Chrysostom  in  Greek,  is  an  inscription  stating  that 
this,  and  MS.  XXIV,,  were  copied  in  the  years  1499  and  1500  by  a  Greek 
from  Constantinople,  named  John  Serbopylas,  then  living  and  working  at 
Reading. 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      41 

this  monk  was  the  personal  friend  of  Ludovico  Vives, 
and  that  he  sent  over  the  sea  one  of  his  subjects  at  St. 
Augustine's,  John  Digon,  whom  he  subsequently  made 
prior  of  his  monastery,  to  the  schools  of  Louvain,  in 
order  that  he  might  profit  by  the  teaching  of  that 
celebrated  Spanish  humanist.^ 

Beyond  the  foregoing  particular  instances  of  the 
real  mind  of  English  ecclesiastics  towards  the  revival 
of  studies,  the  official  registers  of  the  Universities  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  furnish  us  with  evidence  of  the 
general  attitude  of  approval  adopted  by  the  Church 
authorities  in  England.  Unfortunately,  gaps  in  the 
Register  of  Graduates  at  Oxford  for  the  second  half 
of  the  fifteenth  century  do  not  enable  us  to  gauge 
the  full  extent  of  the  revival,  but  there  is  sufficient 
evidence  that  the  renaissance  had  taken  place.  In  the 
eleven  years,  from  A.D.  1449  to  A.D.  1459,  for  which 
the  entries  exist,  the  average  number  of  degrees  taken 
by  all  students  was  91.5.  From  1506,  when  the 
registers  begin  again,  to  1535,  when  the  commence- 
ment of  operations  against  the  monastic  houses 
seemed    to    indicate    the    advent    of    grave     religious 

^  Ludovico  Vives  had  been  invited  over  to  England  by  Cardinal  Wolsey  to 
lecture  on  rhetoric  at  Oxford.  He  lived  at  Corpus  Christi  College,  then  ruled 
by  Dr.  John  Claymond,  whom  in  his  tract  De  coftscribendis  Epistolis  he  calls 
his  "  father."  The  fame  of  this  Spanish  master  of  eloquence  drew  crowds  to  his 
lectures  at  the  university,  and  amongst  the  audience  Henry  and  Queen  Kath- 
erine  might  sometimes  be  seen.  For  a  time  he  acted  also  as  tutor  to  the 
Princess  Mary,  and  dedicated  several  works  to  the  queen,  to  whose  generosity 
he  says  he  owed  much.  He  took  her  side  in  the  "  divorce  "question,  and  was 
thrown  into  prison  for  some  weeks  for  expressing  his  views  on  the  matter. 
Fisher,  More,  and  Tunstall  were  [his  constant  friends  in  England,  and  of 
Margaret  Roper  he  writes,  "from  the  time  I  first  made  her  acquaintance  I 
have  loved  her  as  a  sister."  Among  his  pupils  at  Louvain,  besides  the  above- 
named  Canterbury  monk,  John  Digon,  he  mentions  with  great  affection 
Nicholas  Wotton,  whom  the  antiquary  Twyne  speaks  of  as  returning  to  Eng- 
land with  Digon  and  Jerome  Ruffaldus,  who  calls  Vives  his  "Jonathan,"  and 
who  subsequently  became  abbot  of  St.  Vaast,  Arras. 


42         THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

changes,  the  average  number  of  yearly  degrees  granted 
was  127.  In  1506  the  number  had  risen  to  216,  and 
only  in  very  few  of  the  subsequent  years  had  the 
average  fallen  below  100.  From  108  in  1535,  the 
number  of  graduates  fell  in  1536  to  only  44;  and  the 
average  for  the  subsequent  years  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.  was  less  than  57.  From  1548  to  1553, 
that  is,  during  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  the  average  of 
graduates  was  barely  33,  but  it  rose  again,  whilst  Mary 
was  on  the  throne,  to  70. 

If  the  same  test  be  applied  to  the  religious  Orders, 
it  will  be  found  that  they  hkewise  equally  profited  by  the 
new  spirit.  During  the  period  from  1449  to  1459  the 
Benedictine  Order  had  a  yearly  average  of  4  graduates 
at  Oxford,  the  other  religious  bodies  taken  together 
having  5.  In  the  second  period  of  150 6- 1539  the 
Benedictine  graduates  number  200,  and  (allowing  for 
gaps  in  the  register)  the  Order  had  thus  a  yearly  average 
of  6.75,  the  average  of  the  other  Orders  during  the  same 
period  being  5.2.  If,  moreover,  the  number  of  the 
religious  who  took  degrees  be  compared  with  that  of 
the  secular  students,  it  will  be  found  that  the  former 
seem  to  have  more  than  held  their  own.  During  the 
time  from  1449  to  1459  the  members  of  the  regular 
Orders  were  to  the  rest  in  the  proportion  of  i  to  9.5. 
In  the  period  of  the  thirty  years  immediately  preceding 
the  general  dissolution  it  was  as  i  to  9.  Interest  in  learn- 
ing, too,  was  apparently  kept  up  among  the  religious 
Orders  to  the  last.  Even  with  their  cloisters  falHng  on 
all  sides  round  about  them,  in  the  last  hour  of  their 
corporate  existence,  that  is  in  the  year  1538-39,  some 
14  Benedictines  took  their  degrees  at  Oxford. 

In  regard  to  Cambridge,  a  few  notes  taken  from  the 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      43 

interesting  preface  to  a  recent  "  History  of  Gonville  and 
Caius  College  "  will  suffice  to  show  that  the  monks  did 
not  neglect  the  advantages  offered  to  them  in  the  sister 
university.^  Gonville  Hall,  as  the  college  was  then 
called,  was  by  the  statutes  of  Bishop  Bateman  closely 
connected  with  the  Benedictine  Cathedral  Priory  of 
Norwich.  Between  1500  and  1523  the  early  bursars' 
accounts  give  a  list  of  "  pensioners,"  and  these  "  largely 
consisted  of  monks  sent  hither  from  their  respective 
monasteries  for  the  purpose  of  study."  These  "  pen- 
sioners paid  for  their  rooms  and  their  commons,  and 
shared  their  meals  with  the  fellows.  All  the  greater 
monasteries  in  East  Anglia,  such  as  the  Benedictine 
Priory  at  Norwich,  the  magnificent  foundation  of  Bury, 
and  (as  a  large  landowner  in  Norfolk)  the  Cluniac 
House  at  Lewes,  seem  generally  to  have  had  several 
of  their  younger  members  in  training  at  our  college. 
To  these  must  be  added  the  Augustinian  Priory  of 
Westacre,  which  was  mainly  frequented  (as  Dr.  Jessopp 
tells  us)  by  the  sons  of  the  Norfolk  gentry."  " 

The  Visitations  of  the  Norwich  Diocese  (i 492-1 532), 
edited  by  Dr.  Jessopp  for  the  Camden  Society,  contain 
many  references  to  the  monastic  students  at  the  univer- 
sity. In  one  house,  for  example,  in  1520,  the  numbers 
are  short,  because  "  there  were  three  in  the  university." 
In  another  case,  when  a  religious  house  was  too  poor 
to  provide  the  necessary  money  to  support  a  student 
during  his  college  career,  it  was  found  by  friends  of 
the  monastery,  until  a  few  years  later,  when,  on  the 
funds  improving,  the  house  was  able  to  meet  the 
expenses.      This    same    house,    the    Priory    of    Butley, 

'  J.  Venn,  Gonville  and  Caius  College  (1349-1897),  Vol.  I. 
-  Ibid.,  p.  xvi. 


44        THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

*'  had  a  special  arrangement  with  the  authorities  of 
Gonville  Hall  for  the  reservation  of  a  suitable  room 
for  their  young  monks."  One  object  of  sending 
members  of  a  monastery  to  undergo  the  training  of 
a  university  course  "  was  to  qualify  for  teaching  the 
novices  at  their  own  house "  ;  for  after  they  have 
graduated  and  returned  to  their  monastery,  we  not 
infrequently  find  them  described  as  "  idoneus  preceptor 
pro  confratribus" ;  ^^  idoneus  pro  noviciis  et  j'ltnioribus,"  &c. 
Moreover,  the  possession  of  a  degree  on  the  part  of 
a  religious,  as  an  examination  of  the  lists  will  show, 
often  in  after  life  meant  some  position  of  trust  or  high 
office  in  the  monastery  of  the  graduate. 

Nor  was  the  training  then  received  any  light 
matter  of  form  ;  it  meant  long  years  of  study,  and  the 
possession  of  a  degree  was,  too,  a  public  testimony 
to  a  certain  proficiency  in  the  science  of  teaching. 
Thus,  for  example,  George  Mace,  a  canon  of  Westacre, 
who  became  a  pensioner  at  Gonville  Hall  in  1508, 
studied  arts  for  five  years  and  canon  law  for  four 
years  at  the  university,  and  continued  the  latter  study 
for  eight  years  in  his  monastery.^  William  Hadley,  a 
religious  of  the  same  house,  had  spent  eleven  years 
in  the  study  of  arts  and  theology  ; "  and  Richard 
Brygott,  who  took  his  B.D.  in  1520,  and  who  subse- 
quently became  Prior  of  Westacre,  had  studied  two 
years  and  a  half  in  his  monastery,  two  years  in  Paris, 
and  seven  in  Cambridge.^ 

"  With  the  Reformation,  of  course,  all  this  came 
to  an  end,"  writes  Mr.  Venn,  and  we  can  well  under- 
stand that  this  sudden  stoppage  of  what,  in  the  aggre- 

1  Ibid.,  p.  18.  2  ii^id.,  p.  23. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  21. 


REVIVAL  OP^   LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      45 

gate,  was  a  considerable  source  of  supply  to  the 
university,  was  seriously  felt.  On  the  old  system,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  promising  students  were  selected 
by  their  monasteries,  and  supported  in  college  at  the 
expense  of  the  house.  As  the  author  of  the  interesting 
account  of  Durham  Priory  says  :  "  If  the  master  did 
see  that  any  of  them  (the  novices)  were  apt  to  learning, 
and  did  apply  his  book  and  had  a  pregnant  wit  withal, 
then  the  master  did  let  the  prior  have  intelligence. 
Then,  straightway  after  he  was  sent  to  Oxford  to 
school,  and  there  did  learn  to  study  divinity."  ^ 

Moreover,  it  should  be  remembered  that  it  was  by 
means  of  the  assistance  received  from  the  monastic 
and  conventual  houses  that  a  very  large  number  of 
students  were  enabled  to  receive  their  education  at 
the  universities  at  all.  The  episcopal  registers  testify 
to  this  useful  function  of  the  old  religious  corpora- 
tions. The  serious  diminution  in  the  number  of 
candidates  for  ordination,  and  the  no  less  lamentable 
depletion  of  the  national  universities,  consequent  upon 
the  dissolution  of  these  bodies,  attest  what  had  pre- 
viously been  done  by  them  for  the  education  of  the 
pastoral  clergy.  This  may  be  admitted  without  any 
implied  approval  of  the  monastic  system  as  it  existed. 
The  fact  will  be  patent  to  all  who  will  examine  into 
the  available  evidence  ;  and  the  serious  diminution  in 
the  number  of  clergy  must  be  taken  as  part  of  the 
price  paid  by  the  nation  for  securing  the  triumph  of 
the  Reformation  principles.  The  state  of  Oxford 
during,  say,  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  is  attested  by 
the  degree  lists.  In  the  year  1547  and  in  the  year 
1550  no  student  at  all  graduated,  and  the  historian  of 

1  Ibid.,  p.  xviii. 


46        THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

the  university  has  described  the  lamentable  state  to 
which  the  schools  were  reduced.  If  additional  testi- 
mony be  needed,  it  may  be  found  in  a  sermon  of 
Roger  Edgworth,  preached  in  Queen  Mary's  reign. 
Speaking  of  works  of  piety  and  pity,  much  needed  in 
those  days,  the  speaker  advocates  charity  to  the  poor 
students  at  the  two  national  universities.  "  Very  pity," 
he  says,  "  moves  me  to  exhort  you  to  mercy  and  pity 
on  the  poor  students  in  the  universities  of  Oxford  and 
Cambridge.  They  were  never  so  few  in  number,  and 
yet  those  that  are  left  are  ready  to  run  abroad  into 
the  world  and  give  up  their  study  for  very  need. 
Iniquity  is  so  abundant  that  charity  is  all  cold.  A 
man  would  have  pity  did  he  but  hear  the  lamentable 
complaints  that  I  heard  lately  when  amongst  them. 
Would  to  God  I  were  able  to  relieve  them.  This  much 
I  am  sure  of :  in  my  opinion  you  cannot  bestow  your 
charity  better."  He  then  goes  on  to  instance  his  own 
case  as  an  example  of  what  used  to  be  done  in  Catholic 
times  to  help  the  student  in  his  education.  "  My 
parents  sent  me  to  school  in  my  youth,  and  my  good 
lord  William  Smith,  sometime  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  (was) 
my  bringer  up  and  *  exhibitour,'  first  at  Banbury  in  the 
Grammar  School  with  Master  John  Stanbridge,  and 
then  at  Oxford  till  I  was  a  Master  of  Arts  and  able 
to  help  myself." 

He  pleads  earnestly  that  some  of  his  hearers  may 
be  inspired  to  help  the  students  in  the  distress  to  which 
they  are  now  reduced,  and  so  help  to  restore  learning  to 
the  position  from  which  it  had  fallen  in  late  years.^ 

Of  the  lamentable  decay  of  scholarship  as  such,  the 
inevitable,  and  perhaps  necessary,  consequence  of  the 

1  Sermons  (1557),  f.  54- 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      47 

religious  controversies  which  occupied  men's  minds 
and  thoughts  to  the  exclusion  of  all  else,  it  is,  of  course, 
not  the  place  here  to  dwell  upon.  All  that  it  is  neces- 
sary to  do  is  to  point  out  that  the  admitted  decay  and 
decline  argues  a  previous  period  of  greater  life  and 
vigour.  Even  as  early  as  1545  the  Cambridge  scholars 
petitioned  the  king  for  an  extension  of  privileges,  as  they 
feared  the  total  destruction  of  learning.  To  endeavour 
to  save  Oxford,  it  was  ordered  that  every  clergyman, 
having  a  benefice  to  the  amount  of  ;£ioo,  should  out 
of  his  living  find  at  least  one  scholar  at  the  university. 
Bishop  Latimer,  in  Edward  VI. 's  reign,  looked  back 
with  regret  to  past  times  "  when  they  helped  the 
scholars,"  for  since  then  '*  almost  no  man  helpeth  to 
maintain  them."  "  Truly,"  he  said,  "  it  is  a  pitiful 
thing  to  see  the  schools  so  neglected.  Schools  are 
not  maintained,  scholars  have  not  exhibitions.  .  .  . 
Very  few  there  be  that  help  poor  scholars.  ...  It 
would  pity  a  man's  heart  to  hear  what  I  hear  of  the 
state  of  Cambridge  ;  what  it  is  in  Oxford  I  cannot 
tell.  ...  I  think  there  be  at  this  day  (A.D.  1550)  ten 
thousand  students  less  than  there  were  within  these 
twenty  years."  In  the  year  1550,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, there  was  apparently  no  degree  of  any  kind 
taken  at  the  university  of  Oxford. 

This  fact  appears  patent  on  this  page  of  history  ; 
that  from  the  time  when  minds  began  to  exercise 
themselves  on  the  thorny  subjects  which  grew  up 
round  about  the  "  great  divorce  "  question,  the  bright 
promises  of  the  revival  of  learning,  which  Erasmus 
had  seen  in  England,  faded  away.  Greek,  it  has 
been  said,  may  conveniently  stand  for  learning  gener- 
ally ;  and  Greek  studies  apparently  disappeared  in  the 


48         THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

religious  turmoils  which  distracted  England.  With 
Mary's  accession,  some  attempt  was  made  to  recover 
lost  ground,  or  at  least  re-enkindle  the  lamp  of  learn- 
ing. When  Sir  Thomas  Pope  refounded  Durham 
College  at  Oxford  under  the  name  of  Trinity,  he  was 
urged  by  Cardinal  Pole,  to  whom  he  submitted  the 
draft  of  his  statutes,  "  to  order  Greek  to  be  more 
taught  there  than  I  have  provided.  This  purpose," 
he  says,  "  I  like  well,  but  I  fear  the  times  will  not 
bear  it  now.  I  remember  when  I  was  a  young  scholar 
at  Eton,  the  Greek  tongue  was  growing  apace,  the 
study  of  which  is  now  of  late  much  decayed."  ^ 

The  wholesale  destruction  of  the  great  libraries  in 
England  is  an  indirect  indication  of  the  new  spirit 
which  rose  at  this  time,  and  which  helped  for  a  time 
to  put  an  end  to  the  renaissance  of  letters.  When 
Mary  came  to  the  throne,  and  quieter  times  made 
the  scheme  possible,  it  was  seriously  proposed  to  do 
something  to  preserve  the  remnant  of  ancient  and 
learned  works  that  might  be  left  in  England  after 
the  wholesale  destruction  of  the  preceding  years. 
The  celebrated  Dr.  Dee  drew  up  a  supplication  to  the 
queen,  stating  that  "  among  the  many  most  lamentable 
displeasures  that  have  of  late  happened  in  this  realm, 
through  the  subverting  of  religious  houses  and  the 
dissolution  of  other  assemblies  of  godly  and  learned 
men,  it  has  been,  and  among  all  learned  students  shall 
for  ever  be,  judged  not  the  least  calamity,  the  spoil 
and  destruction  of  so  many  and  so  notable  libraries 
wherein  lay  the  treasure  of  all  antiquity,  and  the  ever- 
lasting seeds  of  continual  excellency  in  learning  within 
this  realm.      But  although   in  those  days  many  a  pre- 

^  A.  Chalmers,  Histoiy  of  the  Colleges,  err.  of  Oxford,  ii.  p.  351. 


REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS   IN   ENGLAND      49 

cious  jewel  and  ancient  monument  did  utterly  perish 
(as  at  Canterbury  that  wonderful  work  of  the  sage  and 
eloquent  Cicero,  De  Republica,  and  in  many  other  places 
the  like),  yet  if  in  time  great  and  speedy  diligence  be 
showed,  the  remnants  of  such  incredible  a  store,  as  well 
of  writers  theological  as  in  all  the  other  liberal  sciences, 
might  yet  be  saved  and  recovered,  which  now  in  your 
Grace's  realm  being  dispersed  and  scattered,  yea,  and 
many  of  them  in  unlearned  men's  hands,  still  even  yet 
(in  this  time  of  reconciliation)  daily  perish  ;  and  per- 
chance are  purposely  by  some  envious  person  enclosed 
in  walls  or  buried  in  the  ground." 

The  scheme  which  accompanied  this  letter  in  1556 
was  for  the  formation  of  a  national  library,  into  which 
were  to  be  gathered  the  original  manuscripts  still  left 
in  England,  which  could  be  purchased  or  otherwise 
obtained,  or  at  least  a  copy  of  such  as  were  in  private 
hands,  and  which  the  owners  would  not  part  with. 
Beyond  this,  John  Dee  proposes  that  copies  of  the  best 
manuscripts  in  Europe  should  be  secured.  He  men- 
tions specially  the  libraries  of  the  Vatican,  and  of  St. 
Mark's,  Venice,  those  at  Florence,  Bologna,  and  Vienna, 
and  offers  to  go  himself,  if  his  expenses  are  paid,  to  secure 
the  transcripts.^  The  plan,  however,  came  to  nothing, 
and  with  Mary's  death,  the  nation  was  once  more 
occupied  in  the  religious  controversies,  which  again 
interfered  with  any  real  advance  in  scholarship. 

One  other  point  must  not  be  overlooked.  Before 
the  rise  of  the  religious  dissensions  caused  England  to 
isolate  herself  from  the  rest  of  the  Catholic  world, 
English  students  were  to  be  found  studying  in  consider- 
able numbers  at  the  great  centres  of  learning  in  Europe. 

'   Hearne,y(3/^«  of  Glastonbury,  ii.  p.  490;  from  MS.  Cott.  Vitellius  c.  vii. 

D 


50        THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

An  immediate  result  of  the  change  was  to  put  a  stop  to 
this,  which  had  served  to  keep  the  country  in  touch 
with  the  best  work  being  done  on  the  Continent,  and 
the  result  of  which  had  been  seen  in  the  able  English 
scholars  produced  by  that  means  on  the  eve  of  the 
Reformation. 

Taking  a  broad  survey  of  the  whole  movement  for 
the  revival  of  letters  in  England,  it  would  appear  then 
certain  that  whether  we  regard  its  origin,  or  the  forces 
which  contributed  to  support  it,  or  the  men  chiefly 
concerned  in  it,  it  must  be  confessed  that  to  the 
Church  and  churchmen  the  country  was  indebted  for 
the  successes  achieved.  What  put  a  stop  to  the 
humanist  movement  here,  as  it  certainly  did  in  Ger- 
many, was  the  rise  of  the  religious  difficulties,  which, 
under  the  name  of  the  "  New  Learning,"  was  opposed 
by  those  most  conspicuous  for  their  championship  of 
true  learning,  scholarship,  and  education. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS 

The  Reformation  found  men  still  occupied  with  ques- 
tions as  to  the  limits  of  ecclesiastical  and  lay  jurisdiction, 
which  had  troubled  their  minds  at  various  periods  during 
the  previous  centuries.  It  is  impossible  to  read  very 
deeply  into  the  literature  of  the  period  without  seeing 
that,  while  on  the  one  hand,  all  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  Church  were 
fully  and  freely  recognised  by  all ;  on  the  other,  a 
number  of  questions,  mainly  in  the  broad  borderland 
of  debatable  ground  between  the  two,  were  constantly 
being  discussed,  and  not  infrequently  gave  cause  for 
disagreements  and  misunderstandings.  As  in  the  his- 
tory of  earlier  times,  so  in  the  sixteenth  century  ecclesi- 
astics clung,  perhaps  not  unnaturally,  to  what  they 
regarded  as  their  strict  rights,  and  looked  on  resistance 
to  encroachment  as  a  sacred  duty.  Laymen  on  the  other 
part,  even  when  their  absolute  loyalty  to  the  Church  was 
undoubted,  were  found  in  the  ranks  of  those  who  claimed 
for  the  State  power  to  decide  in  matters  not  strictly  per- 
taining to  the  spiritual  prerogatives,  but  which  chiefly  by 
custom  had  come  to  be  regarded  as  belonging  to  ecclesi- 
astical domain.  It  is  the  more  important  that  attention 
should  be  directed  in  a  special  manner  to  these  questions, 
inasmuch  as  it  will  be  found,  speaking  broadly,  that  the 
ultimate  success  or  ill-success  of  the  strictly  doctrinal 


52         THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

changes  raised  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  determined 
by  the  issue  of  the  discussions  raised  on  the  question 
of  mixed  jurisdiction.  This  may  not  seem  very  philo- 
sophical, but  in  the  event  it  is  proved  to  be  roughly 
correct.  The  reason  is  not  very  far  to  seek.  In  great 
measure  at  least,  questions  of  money  and  property, 
even  of  national  interest  and  prosperity,  were  intimately 
concerned  in  the  matter  in  dispute.  They  touched  the 
people's  pocket  ;  and  whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  those 
who  found  the  money  wished  to  have  a  say  in  its  dis- 
posal. One  thing  cannot  fail  to  strike  an  inquirer  into 
the  literature  of  this  period  :  the  very  small  number  of 
people  who  were  enthusiasts  in  the  doctrinal  matters 
with  which  the  more  ardent  reformers  occupied  them- 
selves.    - 

We  are  not  here  concerned  with  another  and  more 
delicate  question  as  to  the  papal  prerogatives  exercised 
in  England.  For  clearness'  sake  in  estimating  the 
forces  which  made  for  change  on  the  eve  of  the  Re- 
formation, this  subject  must  be  examined  in  connection 
with  the  whole  attitude  of  England  to  Rome  and  the 
Pope  in  the  sixteenth  century.  It  must,  consequently, 
be  understood  that  in  trying  here  to  illustrate  the  atti- 
tude of  men's  minds  at  this  period  to  these  important 
and  practical  questions,  a  further  point  as  to  the  claims 
of  the  Roman  Pontiffs  in  regard  to  some  or  all  of  them 
has  yet  to  be  considered.  Even  in  examining  the 
questions  at  issue  between  the  authorities — lay  and 
ecclesiastical — in  the  country,  the  present  purpose  is 
to  record  rather  than  to  criticise,  to  set  forth  the  attitude 
of  mind  as  it  appears  in  the  literature  of  the  period, 
rather  than  to  weigh  the  reasons  and  judge  between 
the  contending  parties. 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  53 

The  lawyer,  Christopher  Saint-German,  is  a  con- 
temporary writer  to  whom  we  naturally  turn  for  in- 
formation upon  the  points  at  issue.  He,  of  course, 
takes  the  layman's  side  as  to  the  right  of  the  State 
to  interfere  in  all,  or  in  most,  questions  which  arise  as 
to  the  dues  of  clerics,  and  other  temporalities,  such  as 
tithes,  &c.,  which  are  attached  to  the  spiritual  functions 
of  the  clergy.  Moreover,  beyond  claiming  the  right 
for  the  State  so  to  interfere  in  the  regulation  of  all 
temporalities  and  kindred  matters,  Saint-German  also 
held  that  in  some  things  in  which  custom  had  given 
sanction  to  the  then  practice,  it  would  be  for  the  good 
of  the  State  that  it  should  do  so.  In  his  Dyalogue  between 
a  Student  of  Law  and  a  Doctor  of  Divinity^  his  views  are 
put  clearly  ;  whilst  the  Doctor  states,  though  somewhat 
lamely  perhaps,  the  position  of  the  clergy. 

To  take  the  example  of  "  mortuaries,"  upon  which 
the  Parliament  had  already  legislated  to  the  dismay 
of  some  of  the  ecclesiastical  party,  who,  as  it  appears, 
on  the  plea  that  the  law  was  unjust  and  beyond  the 
competence  of  the  State  authority,  tried  in  various 
ways  to  evade  the  provisions  of  the  Act,  which  was 
intended  to  relieve  the  laity  of  exactions  that,  as 
they  very  generally  believed,  had  grown  into  an  abuse. 
Christopher  Saint-German  holds  that  Parliament  was 
quite  within  its  rights.  The  State  could,  and  on  occa- 
sion should,  legislate  as  to  dues  payable  to  the  clergy, 
and  settle  whether  ecclesiastics,  who  claim  articles  in 
kind,    or  sums  of  money  by  prescriptive  right,  ought 

^  Saint-German  was  born  1460.  He  was  employed  by  Thomas  Cromwell 
on  some  business  of  the  State,  and  died  in  1540.  The  Dyalogue  was  printed 
apparently  first  in  Latin,  but  subsequently  in  English.  It  consisted  of  three 
parts  (i)  published  by  Robert  Wyer,  (2)  by  Peter  Treveris,  153 1,  and  (3)  by 
Thomas  Berthalet,  also  in  1 53 1. 


54        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

in  fact  to   be   allowed  them.     There   is,  he    admits,  a 
difficulty  ;  he  does  not  think   that    it   would  be   com- 
petent for  the  State  to  prohibit  specific  gifts  to  God's 
service,  or  to  say  that  only  "  so  many  tapers  shall  be 
used  at  a  funeral,"  or  that  only  so  many  priests  may 
be  bidden  to  the  burial,  or  that  only  so  much  may  be 
given   in   alms.      In   matters   of  this   kind  he  does  not 
think  the  State  has  jurisdiction  to  interfere.      "  But  it 
has,"  he   says,   "the   plain    right   to  make  a   law,  that 
there  shall  not  be  given  above  so  many  black  gowns,  or 
that  there  shall  be  no  herald  of  arms  "  present,  unless  it 
is  the  funeral  of  one  "  of  such  a  degree,"  or  that  "  no 
black  cloths  should  be  hung  in  the  streets  from  the  house 
where  the  person  died,   to  the   church,    as   is  used  in 
many   cities    and  good   towns,    or    the    prohibition    of 
such  other  things  as  are  but  worldly  pomps,  and  are 
rather  consolations  to  the  friends  that  are  alive,  than 
any  relief  to  the  departed  soul."      In  these   and  such 
like    things,  he    says  :    "  I    think    the    Parliament    has 
authority  to  pass  laws,  so  as  to  protect  the  executors 
of  wills,  and  relieve  them  from  the  necessity  of  spend- 
ing so  much  of  the  inheritance  of  the  deceased  man's 

heirs."  ^ 

In  like  manner  the  lawyer  holds  that  in  all  strictly 
temporal  matters,  whatever  privilege  and  exemption 
the  State  may  allow  and  has  allowed  the  clergy,  it 
still  possesses  the  radical  power  to  legislate  where 
and  when  it  sees  fit.  It  does  not  in  fact  by  lapse 
of  time  lose  the  ordinary  authority  it  possesses  over 
all  subjects  of  the  realm  in  these  matters.  Thus,  for 
example,  he  holds  that  the  State  can  and  should  pro- 
hibit  all   lands    in    mortmain   passing   to    the    Church  ; 

1  Dyalogue,  td  sup.,  3rd  part,  f.  2. 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  55 

and  that,  should  it  appear  to  be  a  matter  of  public 
policy,  Parliament  might  prohibit  and  indeed  break 
the  appropriations  of  benefices  already  made  to  monas- 
teries, cathedrals,  and  colleges,  and  order  that  they 
should  return  to  their  original  purposes.  "  The  advow- 
son,"  he  says,  "  is  a  temporal  inheritance,  and  as  such 
is  under  the  Parliament  to  order  it  as  it  sees  cause." 
This  principle,  he  points  out,  had  been  practically 
admitted  when  the  Parliament,  in  the  fourth  year  of 
Henry  IV.,  cancelled  all  appropriations  of  vicarages 
which  had  been  made  from  the  beginning  of  Richard  II.'s 
reign.  It  is  indeed  "  good,"  he  adds,  "  that  the  autho- 
rity of  the  Parliament  in  this  should  be  known,  and 
that  it  should  cause  them  to  observe  such  statutes 
as  are  already  made,  and  to  distribute  some  part  of 
the  fruits  (of  the  benefices)  among  poor  parishioners 
according  to  the  statute  of  the  twentieth  year  of  King 
Richard  II." 

In  the  same  way,  and  for  similar  reasons,  Saint- 
German  claims  that  the  State  has  full  power  to  deter- 
mine questions  of  "  Sanctuary,"  and  to  legislate  as  to 
"  benefit  of  clergy."  Such  matters  were,  he  contends, 
only  customs  of  the  realm,  and  in  no  sense  any  point 
of  purely  spiritual  prerogative.  Like  every  other  custom 
of  the  realm,  these  were  subject  to  revision  by  the 
supreme  secular  authority.  "The  Pope  by  himself," 
he  adds,  "  cannot  make  any  Sanctuary  in  this  realm." 
This  question  of  "Sanctuary"  rights  was  continually 
causing  difHculties  between  the  lay  and  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities.  To  the  legal  mind  the  custom  was  cer- 
tainly dangerous  to  the  well-being  of  the  State,  and 
made  the  administration  of  justice  unnecessarily  com- 
plicated,   especially    when    ecclesiastics    pleaded    their 


56        THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

privileges,  and  strongly  resisted  any  attempt  on  the 
part  of  legal  officials  to  ignore  them.  Cases  were 
by  no  means  infrequent  in  the  courts  in  the  reigns 
of  Henry  VII.  and  Henry  VIII.,  which  caused  more 
or  less  friction  between  the  upholders  of  the  two 
views.^  To  illustrate  the  state  of  conflict  on  this,  in 
itself  a  very  minor  matter,  a  trial  which  took  place 
in  London  in  the  year  1 5 1 9  is  here  given  in  some 
detail.  One  John  Savage  in  that  year  was  charged 
with  murder.  At  the  time  of  his  arrest  he  was  living 
in  St.  John  Street  (Clerkenwell),  and  when  brought 
to  trial  pleaded  that  he  had  been  wrongfully  arrested 
in  a  place  of  Sanctuary  belonging  to  the  Priory  of  St. 
John  of  Jerusalem.  To  justify  his  contention  and 
obtain  his  liberty,  he  called  on  the  Prior  of  the  Knights 
of  St.  John  to  maintain  his  rights  and  privileges,  and 
vindicate  this  claim  of  Sanctuary.  The  prior  appeared 
and  produced  the  grant  of  Pope  Urban  III.,  made  by 
Bull  dated  in  12 13,  which  had  been  ratified  by  King 
Henry  III.  He  also  cited  cases  in  which  he  alleged 
that  in  the  reign  of  the  late  King  Henry  VII.  felons, 
who  had  been  seized  within  the  precincts,  had  been 
restored  to  Sanctuary,  and  he  therefore  argued  that 
this  case  was  an  infringement  of  the  rights  of  his 
priory. 

^  One  of  the  first  Acts  of  King  Henry  VII.  on  his  accession,  was  to  obtain 
from  the  Pope  a  Bull  agreeing  to  some  changes  in  the  Sanctuary  customs. 
Prior  Selling  of  Canterbury  was  despatched  as  King's  Orator  to  Rome  with 
others  to  Pope  Innocent  VIII.  in  1487,  and  brought  back  the  Pope's 
approval  of  three  points  in  which  the  king  proposed  to  change  these  laws. 
First,  that  if  any  person  in  Sanctuary  went  out  at  night  and  committed  mis- 
chief and  trespass,  and  then  got  back  again,  he  should  forfeit  his  privilege  of 
Sanctuary.  Secondly,  that  though  the  person  of  a  debtor  might  be  protected 
in  Sanctuary,  yet  his  goods  out  of  the  precincts  were  not  so  protected  from  his 
creditors.  Tliirdlv,  that  where  a  person  took  .Sanctuary  for  treason,  the  king 
might  appoint  him  keepers  within  the  Sanctuary. 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  57 

Savage  also  declared  that  he  was  in  St.  John  Street 
within  the  precincts  of  the  priory  "  pur  amendement 
de  son  vie,  durant  son  vie,"  when  on  the  8th  of  June 
an  officer,  William  Rotte,  and  others  took  him  by  force 
out  of  the  place,  and  carried  him  away  to  the  Tower. 
He  consequently  claimed  to  be  restored  to  the  Sanc- 
tuary from  which  he  had  been  abducted.  Chief-Justice 
Fineux,  before  whom  the  prisoner  had  been  brought, 
asked  him  whether  he  wished  to  "  jeopardy "  his  case 
upon  his  plea  of  Sanctuary,  and,  upon  consultation, 
John  Savage  replied  in  the  negative,  saying  that  he 
wished  rather  to  throw  himself  upon  the  king's  mercy. 
Fineux  on  this,  said  :  "  In  this  you  are  wise,  for  the 
privileges  of  St.  John's  will  not  aid  you  in  the  form 
in  which  you  have  pleaded  it.  In  reality  it  has  no 
greater  privilege  of  Sanctuary  than  every  parish  church 
in  the  kingdom  ;  that  is,  it  has  privileges  for  forty  days 
and  no  more,  and  in  this  it  partakes  merely  of  the 
common  law  of  the  kingdom,  and  has  no  special 
privilege  beyond  this." 

Further,  Fineux  pointed  out  that  even  had  St.  John's 
possessed  the  Sanctuary  the  prior  claimed,  this  right 
did  not  extend  to  the  fields,  &c.,  but  in  the  opinion  of 
all  the  judges  of  the  land,  to  which  all  the  bishops  and 
clergy  had  assented,  the  bounds  of  any  Sanctuary  were 
the  church,  cloister,  and  cemetery.  Most  certain  it  was 
that  the  ambitus  did  not  extend  to  gardens,  barns,  and 
stables,  and  in  his  (Fineux's)  opinion,  not  even  to  the 
pantry  and  buttery.  He  quotes  cases  in  support  of  his 
opinion.  In  one  instance  a  certain  William  Spencer 
claimed  the  privilege  of  Sanctuary  when  in  an  orchard 
of  the  Grey  Friars  at  Coventry.  In  spite  of  the  asser- 
tion of  the  guardian   that  the   Pope  had  extended  the 


58        THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

privilege  to  the  whole  enclosure,  of  which  the  place  the 
friars  had  to  recreate  themselves  in  was  certainly  a 
portion,  the  plea  was  disallowed,  and  William  Spencer 
was  hanged. 

In  regard  to  the  privilege  of  the  forty  days,  Fineux 
declared  that  it  was  so  obviously  against  the  common 
good  and  in  derogation  of  justice,  that  in  his  opinion 
it  should  not   be  suffered  to  continue,  and  he  quoted 
cases  where   it  had  been  set   aside.      In    several   cases 
where   Papal   privileges   had  been   asserted,  the  judges 
had  held  "  quant  a  les  BuUes  du  pape,  le  pape  sans  le 
Roy  ne  ad  power  de  fayre  sanctuarie."    In  other  words, 
Fineux  rejected  the  plea  of  the  murderer  Savage.     But 
the  case  did  not  stop  here,  both  the  prior  and  Savage, 
as  we  should  say,  "  appealed,"  and  the  matter  was  heard 
in  the  presence  of  Cardinal  Wolsey,  Fineux,  Brudnell, 
and  several  members  of  the  inner  Star  Chamber.     Dr. 
Potkyn,  counsel  for  the  Prior  of  St.  John,  pleaded  the 
"  knowledge  and  allowance  of  the  king  "  to  prove  the 
privilege.      No   decision    was  arrived  at,  and  a  further 
sitting  of  the  Star  Chamber  was  held  on  November  ii, 
1520,  in  the  presence  of  the  king,  the  cardinal,  all  the 
judges,  and  divers  bishops  and  canonists,  as  well  as  the 
Prior  of  St.  John  and  the  Abbot  of  Westminster.     Be- 
fore the  assembly  many  examples  of  difficulties  in  the 
past  were   adduced    by  the   judges.     These  difficulties 
they   declared   increased  so   as  to  endanger  the  peace 
and  law  of  the  country,  by  reason  of  the  Sanctuaries  of 
Westminster  and  St.  John's.     To  effect  a  remedy  was 
the  chief  reason  of  the  royal  presence  at  the  meeting. 
After  long  discussion  it  was  declared  that  as  St.  John's 
Sanctuary  was  made,  as  it  had  been  shown,  by  Papal 
Bull,  it  was  consequently  void  even  if  confirmed  by  the 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  59 

king's  patent,  and  hence  that  the  priory  had  no  privilege  at 
all  except  the  common  one  of  forty  days.  The  judges 
and  all  the  canonists  were  quite  clear  that  the  Pope's  right 
to  make  a  Sanctuary  had  never  been  allowed  in  Eng- 
land, and  that  every  such  privilege  must  come  from  the 
king.  On  the  other  hand,  the  bishops  present  and  all 
the  clergy  were  equally  satisfied  that  the  general  forty 
days'  privilege  belonged  by  right  to  every  parish  church. 
The  Abbot  of  Westminster  then  proved  by  the  produc- 
tion of  charters  and  other  indubitable  evidence  that  the 
Sanctuary  of  Westminster  had  its  origin  in  the  grants 
of  various  kings,  and  had  only  been  blessed  by  the 
Pope. 

Fineux  pointed  out  that  Sanctuary  grants  had 
always  been  made  to  monasteries  and  churches  "to 
the  laud  and  honour  of  God,"  and  that  it  was  not  cer- 
tainly likely  to  redound  to  God's  honour  when  men 
could  commit  murder  and  felony,  and  trust  to  get  into 
the  safe  precinct  of  some  Sanctuary  ;  neither  did  he 
believe  that  to  have  bad  houses  in  Sanctuaries,  and 
such  like  abuses,  was  either  to  the  praise  of  God  or  for 
the  welfare  of  the  kingdom.  Further,  that  as  regards 
Westminster,  the  abbot  had  abused  his  privileges  as  to 
the  ambitus  or  precincts  which  in  law  must  be  under- 
stood in  the  restricted  sense.  The  cardinal  admitted 
that  there  had  been  abuses,  and  a  Commission  was  pro- 
posed to  determine  the  reasonable  bounds.  Bishop 
Voysey,  of  Exeter,  suggested  that  if  a  Sanctuary  man 
committed  murder  or  felony  outside,  with  the  hope  of 
getting  back  again,  the  privilege  of  shelter  should  be 
forfeited  ;  but  the  majority  were  against  this  restriction. 
On  the  whole,  however,  it  was  determined  that  for  the 
good  of  the  State  the  uses  of  these  Sanctuaries  should 


6o         THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

be  curtailed,  and  that  none  should  be  allowed  in  law 
but  such  as  could  show  a  grant  of  the  privilege  from 
the  crown.^ 

In  the  opinion  of  many,  of  whom  Saint-German  was 
the  spokesman,  to  go  to  another  matter,  Parliament  might 
assign  "  all  the  trees  and  grass  in  churchyards  either  to 
the  parson,  to  the  vicar,  or  to  the  parish,"  as  it  thought 
fit ;  for  although  the  ground  was  hallowed,  the  proceeds, 
such  as  "  trees  and  grass,  are  mere  temporals,  and  as 
such  must  be  regulated  by  the  power  of  the  State." 

Moreover,  according  to  the  same  view,  whilst  it  would 
be  outside  the  province  of  the  secular  law  to  determine 
the  cut  of  a  priest's  cassock  or  the  shape  of  his  tonsure,  it 
could  clearly  determine  that  no  priest  should  wear  cloth 
made  out  of  the  country,  or  costing  above  a  certain 
price  ;  and  it  might  fix  the  amount  of  salary  to  be  paid 
to  a  chaplain  or  curate.'- 

There  were  circumstances,  too,  under  which,  in  the 
opinion  of  Saint-German,  ParHament  not  only  could 
interfere  to  legislate  about  clerical  duties,  but  would  be 
bound  to  do  so.  At  the  time  when  he  was  writing, 
the  eve  of  the  Reformation,  many  things  seemed  to 
point  to  this  necessity  for  State  interference.  There 
were  signs  of  wide-spread  religious  differences  in  the 
world.  "Why  then,"  he  asks,  "may  not  the  king 
and  his  Parliament,  as  well  to  strengthen  the  faith  and 
give  health  to  the  souls  of  many  of  his  subjects,  as 
to  save  his  realm  being  noted  for  heresy,  seek  for 
the  reason  of  the  division  now  in  the  realm  by  diver- 
sity of  sects  and  opinions  ?  .  .  .  They  shall  have  great 
reward  before  God  that  set  their  hands  to  prevent  the 

1  Robert  Keilway,  Relationes  qiiortindam  casiunn,  f.  188,  seqq. 
'  Dyalogiie,  tit  5iiJ>.,  f.  12. 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  6i 

great  danger  to  many  souls  of  men  as  well  spiritual 
as  temporal  if  this  division  continue  long.  And  as  far 
as  I  have  heard,  all  the  articles  that  are  misliked  (are 
aimed)  either  against  the  worldly  honour,  worldly 
power,  or  worldly  riches  of  spiritual  men.  To  ex- 
press these  articles  I  hold  it  not  expedient,  and  indeed 
if  what  some  have  reported  be  true,  many  of  them 
be  so  far  against  the  truth  that  no  Christian  man 
would  hold  them  to  be  true,  and  they  that  do  so  do 
it  for  some  other  consideration."  ^ 

As  an  example,  our  author  takes  the  question  of 
Purgatory,  which  he  believes  is  attacked  because  men 
want  to  free  themselves  from  the  money  offerings 
which  belief  in  the  doctrine  necessitates.  And  indeed, 
"  if  it  were  ordained  by  law,"  he  continues,  "  that  every 
curate  at  the  death  of  any  of  their  parishioners  should 
be  bound  to  say  publicly  for  their  souls  Placebo,  Dirige 
and  mass,  without  taking  anything  for  (the  service) : 
and  further  that  at  a  certain  time,  to  be  assigned  by 
Parliament,  as  say,  once  a  month,  or  as  it  shall  be 
thought  convenient,  they  shall  do  the  same  and  pray 
for  the  souls  of  their  parishioners  and  for  all  Christian 
souls  and  for  the  king  and  all  the  realm  :  and  also 
that  religious  houses  do  in  like  manner,  I  fancy  in 
a  short  time  there  would  be  few  to  say  there  was  no 
purgatory."  ^ 

In  some  matters  Saint-German  considered  that  the 
State  might  reasonably  interfere  in  regard  to  the  reli- 
gious life.  The  State,  he  thinks,  would  have  no  right 
whatever  to  prohibit  religious  vows  altogether  ;  but  it 
would  be  competent  for  the  secular  authority  to  lay 
down  conditions  to  prevent  abuses  and  generally  pro- 

^  Dyalogiie,  f.  23  -  Ibid. 


62         THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

tect  society  where  such  protection  was  needed.  "  It 
would  be  good,"  for  example,  he  writes,  "  to  make  a 
law  that  no  religious  house  should  receive  any  child 
below  a  certain  age  into  the  habit,  and  that  he  should 
not  be  moved  from  the  place  into  which  he  had  been 
received  without  the  knowledge  and  assent  of  friends." 
This  would  not  be  to  prohibit  religious  life,  which 
would  not  be  a  just  law,  but  only  the  laying  down 
of  conditions.  In  the  fourth  year  of  Henry  IV.  the 
four  Orders  of  Friars  had  such  a  law  made  for  them  ; 
"when  the  four  Provincials  of  the  said  four  Orders 
were  sworn  by  laying  their  hands  upon  their  breasts  in 
open  Parliament  to  observe  the  said  statute."  ^ 

In  the  same  way  the  State  may,  Saint -German 
thinks,  lay  down  the  conditions  for  matrimony,  so  long 
as  there  was  no  "  interference  with  the  sacrament  of 
marriage."  Also,  "  as  I  suppose,"  he  says,  "  the  Parlia- 
ment may  well  enact  that  every  man  that  makes  profit 
of  any  offerings  (coming)  by  recourse  of  pilgrims  shall 
be  bound  under  a  certain  penalty  not  only  to  set  up 
certain  tables  to  instruct  the  people  how  they  shall 
worship  the  saints,  but  also  cause  certain  sermons  to 
be  yearly  preached  there  to  instruct  the  people,  so 
that  through  ignorance  they  do  not  rather  displease 
than  please  the  saints."  ^ 

The  State  "may  also  prohibit  any  miracle  being 
noised  abroad  on  such  slight  evidence  as  they  have 
been  in  some  places  in  times  past ;  and  that  they  shall 
not  be  set  up  as  miracles,  under  a  certain  penalty,  nor 
reported  as  miracles  by  any  one  till  they  have  been 
proved  such  in  such  a  manner  as  shall  be  appointed 
by  Parliament.     And  it  is  not  unlikely  that  many  per- 

1  Ibid.,  f.  23.  2  Ibid.,  f.  21. 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  63 

sons  grudge  more  at  the  abuse  of  pilgrimages  than  at 
the  pilgrimages  themselves."  Parliament,  he  points 
out,  has  from  time  to  time  vindicated  its  right  to  act 
in  matters  such  as  these.  For  example :  *'  To  the 
strengthening  of  the  faith  it  has  enacted  that  no  man 
shall  presume  to  preach  without  leave  of  his  dio- 
cesan except  certain  persons  exempted  in  the  statute  " 
(2  Henry  IV.).' 

There  are,  Saint-German  notes,  many  cases  where 
it  is  by  no  means  clear  whether  they  are  strictly  be- 
longing to  spiritual  jurisdiction  or  not.  Could  the  law, 
for  example,  prohibit  a  bishop  from  ordaining  any 
candidate  to  Holy  Orders  who  was  not  sufficiently 
learned  ?  Could  the  law  which  exempted  priests  from 
serving  on  any  inquest  or  jury  be  abrogated  ?  These, 
and  such  like  matters  in  the  borderland,  are  debatable 
questions  ;  but  Saint-German  makes  it  clear  that,  ac- 
cording to  his  view,  it  is  a  mistake  for  clerics  to  claim 
more  exemptions  from  the  common  law  than  is  abso- 
lutely necessary.  That  there  must  be  every  protection 
for  their  purely  spiritual  functions,  he  fully  and  cordially 
admits  ;  but  when  all  this  is  allowed,  in  his  opinion,  it 
is  a  grave  mistake  for  the  clergy,  even  from  their  point 
of  view,  to  try  and  stretch  their  immunities  and  exemp- 
tions beyond  the  required  limit.  The  less  the  clergy 
were  made  a  "  caste,"  and  the  more  they  fell  in  with 
the  nation  at  large,  the  better  it  would  be  for  all  parties 
in  the  State. 

On  the  question  of  tithe,  Saint-German  took  the 
laymen's  view.  To  the  ecclesiastics  of  the  period  tithes 
were  spiritual  matters,  and  all  questions  arising  out  of 
them   should    be  settled    by   archbishop    or   bishop   in 

1  Ibid.,  f.  21. 


64        THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

spiritual  courts.  The  lawyer,  on  the  other  hand, 
maintained  that  though  given  to  secure  spiritual  ser- 
vices, in  themselves  tithes  were  temporal,  and  therefore 
should  fall  under  the  administration  of  the  State.  Who, 
for  example,  was  to  determine  what  was  payable  on 
new  land,  and  to  whom  ;  say  on  land  recovered  from 
the  sea  ?  In  the  first  place,  according  to  the  lawyer, 
it  should  be  the  owner  of  the  soil  who  should  apportion 
the  payment,  and  failing  him,  the  Parliament,  and  not 
the  spirituality. 

In  another  work  ^  Saint-German  puts  his  view  more 
clearly.  A  tithe  that  comes  irregularly,  say  once  in 
ten  or  twenty  years,  cannot  be  considered  necessary 
for  the  support  of  the  clergy.  That  people  were  bound 
to  contribute  to  the  just  and  reasonable  maintenance 
of  those  who  serve  the  altar  did  not  admit  of  doubt, 
but,  he  holds,  a  question  arises  as  to  the  justice  of  the 
amount  in  individual  cases.  "  Though  the  people  be 
bound  by  the  law  of  reason,  and  also  the  law  of  God, 
to  find  their  spiritual  ministers  a  reasonable  portion  of 
goods  to  live  upon,  yet  that  they  shall  pay  precisely  the 
tenth  part  to  their  spiritual  ministers  in  the  name  of 
that  portion  is  but  the  law  of  man."  If  the  tithe  did 
not  at  any  time  suffice,  "  the  people  would  be  bound 
to  give  more"  in  order  to  fulfil  their  Christian  duty. 
Some  authority  must  determine,  and  in  his  opinion  as 
a  lawyer  and  a  layman,  the  only  authority  competent  to 
deal  with  the  matter,  so  far  as  the  payment  of  money 
was  concerned,  was  the  State  ;  and  consequently  Parlia- 
ment might,  and  at  times  ought,  to  legislate  about  the 
payment  of  tithes." 

1  A  treaty  se  concent'ntg  the  power  of  the  clergie  and  the  laws  of  the  realme. 
London,  J.  Godfray.  ^  A  treatyse,  &c.,  ut  supra,  cap.  4. 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  65 

In  a  second  Treatise  concerning  the  power  of  the  clergy 
and  the  laws  of  the  realm,  Saint-German  returns  to  this 
subject  of  the  relation  between  the  two  jurisdictions. 
This  book,  however,  was  published  after  Henry  VIII. 
had  received  his  parliamentary  title  of  Supreme  Head 
of  the  Church,  and  by  that  time  the  author's  views  had 
naturally  become  somewhat  more  advanced  on  the  side 
of  State  power.  In  regard  to  the  king's  "  Headship," 
he  declares  that  in  reality  it  is  nothing  new,  but  if 
properly  understood  would  be  recognised  as  implied 
in  the  kingly  power,  and  as  having  nothing  whatever 
to  do  with  the  spiritual  prerogatives  as  such.  He  has 
been  speaking  of  the  writ,  de  excommunicato  capiendo,  by 
which  the  State  had  been  accustomed  to  seize  the 
person  of  one  who  had  been  excommunicated  by  the 
Church  for  the  purpose  of  punishment  by  the  secular 
arm,  and  he  argues  that  if  the  Parliament  were  to 
abrogate  the  law,  such  a  change  would  in  no  sense 
be  a  derogation  of  the  rights  of  the  Church.  Put 
briefly,  the  principle  upon  which  he  bases  this  opinion 
is  one  which  was  made  to  apply  to  many  other  cases 
besides  this  special  one.  It  is  this  :  that  for  a  spiritual 
offence  no  one  ought  in  justice  to  be  made  to  suffer 
in  the  temporal  order.^  Whilst  insisting  on  this,  more- 
over, the  lawyer  maintained  that  there  were  many 
things  which  had  come  to  be  regarded  as  spiritual, 
which  were,  in  reality,  temporal,  and  that  it  would 
be  better  that  these  should  be  altogether  transferred  to 
the  secular  arm  of  the  State.  Such,  for  example,  were, 
in  his  opinion,  the  proving  and  administration  of  wills, 
the  citation  and  consideration  of  cases  of  slander  and 
libel    and    other  matters   of   this    nature.      "  And   there 

^  A  treatyse,  &c.,  ut  supra,  cap.  xii. 


66        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

is  no  doubt,"  he  says,  "  but  that  the  ParHament  may 
with  a  cause  take  that  power  from  them  {i.e.  the  clergy), 
and  might  hkewise  have  done  so  before  it  was  recog- 
nised by  the  Parhament  and  the  clergy  that  the  king 
was  Head  of  the  Church  of  England  ;  for  he  was  so 
before  the  recognition  was  made,  just  as  all  other 
Christian  princes  are  in  their  own  realms  over  all  their 
subjects,  spiritual  and  temporal."  ^ 

Moreover,  as  regards  this,  "  it  lieth  in  princes  to 
appease  all  variances  and  unquietness  that  shall  arise 
among  the  people,  by  whatsoever  occasion  it  rise, 
spiritual  or  temporal.  And  the  king's  grace  has  now 
no  new  authority  in  that  he  is  confessed  by  the  clergy 
and  authorised  by  Parliament  to  be  the  Head  of  the 
Church  of  England.  For  it  is  only  a  declaration  of  his 
first  power  committed  by  God  to  kingly  and  regal 
authority  and  no  new  grant.  Further,  that,  for  all  the 
power  that  he  has  as  Head  of  the  Church,  he  has  yet 
no  authority  to  minister  any  sacraments,  nor  to  do  any 
other  spiritual  thing  whereof  our  Lord  gave  power  to 
His  apostles  and  disciples  only.  .  .  .  And  there  is  no 
doubt  that  such  power  as  the  clergy  have  by  the 
immediate  grant  of  Christ,  neither  the  king  nor  his 
Parliament  can  take  from  them,  although  they  may 
order  the  manner  of  the  doing."  ^ 

The  question  whether  for  grave  offences  the  clergy 
could  be  tried  by  the  king's  judges  was  one  which  had 
long  raised  bitter  feeling  on  the  one  side  and  the  other. 
In  15 1 2,  Parliament  had  done  something  to  vindicate 
the  power  of  the  secular  arm  by  passing  a  law  practi- 
cally confining  the  immunity  of  the  clergy  to  those  in 
sacred  orders.      It  ordained  ''  that  all  persons  hereafter 

^  A  treaty se,  &c.,  ut  supi'a,  cap.  xii.  -  Ibid.,  cap.  xiii. 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  67 

committing  murder  or  felony,  &c.,  should  not  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  benefit  of  clergy."  This  act  led  to  a  great 
dispute  in  the  next  Parliament,  held  in  15 15.  The 
clergy  as  a  body  resented  the  statute  as  an  infringement 
upon  their  rights  and  privileges,  and  the  Abbot  of 
Winchcombe  preached  at  St.  Paul's  Cross  to  this  effect, 
declaring  that  the  Lords  Spiritual  who  had  assented 
to  the  measure  had  incurred  ecclesiastical  censures.  He 
argued  that  all  clerks  were  in  Holy  Orders,  and  that  they 
were  consequently  not  amenable  to  the  secular  tribunals. 
The  king,  at  the  request  of  many  of  the  Temporal 
Lords  and  several  of  the  Commons,  ordered  the  case  to 
be  argued  at  a  meeting  held  at  Blackfriars  at  which 
the  judges  were  present.  At  this  debate.  Dr.  Henry 
Standish,  a  Friar  Minor,  defended  the  action  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  maintained  that  it  was  a  matter  of  public 
policy  that  clerks  guilty  of  such  offences  should  be 
tried  by  the  ordinary  process  of  law.  In  reply  to 
the  assertion  that  there  was  a  decree  or  canon  for- 
bidding it,  and  that  all  Christians  were  bound  by  the 
canons  under  pain  of  mortal  sin,  Standish  said  :  "  God 
forbid  ;  for  there  is  a  decree  that  all  bishops  should 
be  resident  at  their  cathedrals  upon  every  festival  day, 
and  yet  we  see  the  greater  part  of  the  English  bishops 
practise  the  contrary."  Moreover,  he  maintained  that 
the  right  of  exemption  of  clerks  from  secular  jurisdic- 
tion had  never  been  allowed  in  England.  The  bishops 
were  unanimously  against  the  position  of  Standish, 
and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  they  had  put  forward 
the  Abbot  of  Winchcombe  to  be  their  spokesman  at 
St.  Paul's  Cross.  Later  on,  Standish  was  charged 
before  Convocation  with  holding  tenets  derogatory  to 
the    privileges    and    jurisdiction    of    ecclesiastics.       He 


68         THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

claimed  the  protection  of  the  king,  and  the  Temporal 
Lords  and  judges  urged  the  king  at  all  costs  to 
maintain  his  right  of  royal  jurisdiction  in  the  matters 
at  issue. 

Again  a  meeting  of  judges,  certain  members  of 
Parliament,  and  the  king's  council,  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral, were  assembled  to  deliberate  on  the  matter  at  the 
Blackfriars.  Dr.  Standish  was  supposed  to  have  said 
that  the  lesser  Orders  were  not  Holy,  and  that  the 
exemption  of  clerks  was  not  de  jure  divino.  These 
opinions  he  practically  admitted,  saying  with  regard 
to  the  first  that  there  was  a  great  difference  between 
the  greater  Orders  and  the  lesser  ;  and  in  regard  to 
the  second,  "  that  the  summoning  of  clerks  before 
temporal  judges  implied  no  repugnance  to  the  posi- 
tive law  of  God."  He  further  partially  admitted  say- 
ing that  "the  study  of  canon  law  ought  to  be  laid 
aside,  because  being  but  ministerial  to  divinity  it  taught 
people  to  despise  that  nobler  science."  The  judges 
decided  generally  against  the  contention  of  the  clergy, 
and  they,  with  other  lords,  met  the  king  at  Baynard's 
Castle  to  tender  their  advice  on  the  matter.  Here 
Wolsey,  kneeling  before  the  king,  declared  "  that  he 
believed  none  of  the  clergy  had  any  intention  to  dis- 
oblige the  prerogative  royal,  that  for  his  part  he  owed 
all  his  promotion  to  his  Highness'  favour,  and  there- 
fore would  never  assent  to  anything  that  should  lessen 
the  rights  of  the  Crown."  But  "  that  this  business 
of  conventing  clerks  before  temporal  judges  was,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  clergy,  directly  contrary  to  the 
laws  of  God  and  the  liberties  of  Holy  Church,  and 
that  both  himself  and  the  rest  of  the  prelates  were 
bound  by  their  oath  to  maintain  this  exemption.      For 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  69 

this  reason  he  entreated  the  king,  in  the  name  of  the 
clergy,  to  refer  the  matter  for  decision  to  the  Pope." 
Archbishop  Warham  added  that  in  old  times  some  of 
the  fathers  of  the  Church  had  opposed  the  matter  so 
far  as  to  suffer  martyrdom  in  the  quarrel.  On  the 
other  hand.  Judge  Fineux  pointed  out  that  spiritual 
judges  had  no  right  by  any  statute  to  judge  any  clerk 
for  felony,  and  for  this  reason  many  churchmen  had 
admitted  the  competence  of  the  secular  courts  for  this 
purpose. 

The  king  finally  replied  on  the  whole  case.  "  By 
the  Providence  of  God,"  he  said,  "  we  are  King  of 
England,  in  which  realm  our  predecessors  have  never 
owned  a  superior,  and  I  would  have  you  (the  clergy) 
take  notice  that  we  are  resolved  to  maintain  the  rights 
of  our  crown  and  temporal  jurisdiction  in  as  ample 
manner  as  any  of  our  progenitors."  In  conclusion, 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  petitioned  the  king  in 
the  name  of  the  clergy  for  the  matter  to  rest  till  such 
time  as  they  could  lay  the  case  before  the  See  of  Rome 
for  advice,  promising  that  if  the  non-exemption  of 
clerks  was  declared  not  to  be  against  the  law  of 
God,  they  would  willingly  conform  to  the  usage  of 
the  country. 

On  this  whole  question,  Saint-German  maintained 
that  the  clergy  had  been  granted  exemption  from  the 
civil  law  not  as  a  right  but  as  a  favour.  There  was, 
in  his  opinion,  nothing  whatever  in  the  nature  of  the 
clerical  state  to  justify  any  claim  to  absolute  exemp- 
tion, nor  was  it,  he  contended,  against  the  law  of 
God  that  the  clergy  should  be  tried  for  felony  and 
other  crimes  by  civil  judges.  In  all  such  things  they, 
like  the  rest  of  his  people,  were  subject  to  their  prince, 


70        THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

who,  because  he  was  a  Christian,  did  not,  for  that 
reason,  have  any  diminished  authority  over  his  sub- 
jects. "  Christ,"  he  remarks,  "  sent  His  apostles,"  as 
appears  from  the  said  words,  "  to  be  teachers  in  spiri- 
tual matters,  and  not  to  be  like  princes,  or  to  take 
from  princes  their  power."  ^  Some,  indeed,  he  says, 
argue  that  since  the  coming  of  our  Lord  "  Christian 
princes  have  derived  their  temporal  power  from  the 
spiritual  power,"  established  by  Him  in  right  of  His 
full  and  complete  dominion  over  the  world.  But 
Saint-German  not  only  holds  that  such  a  claim  has 
no  foundation  in  itself,  but  that  all  manner  of  texts 
of  Holy  Scripture  which  are  adduced  in  proof  of  the 
contention  are  plainly  twisted  from  their  true  meaning 
by  the  spiritual  authority.  And  many,  he  says,  talk 
as  if  the  clergy  were  the  Church,  and  the  Church  the 
clergy,  whereas  they  are  only  one  portion,  perhaps 
the  most  important,  and  possessed  of  greater  and  special 
functions  ;  but  they  were  not  the  whole,  and  were, 
indeed,  endowed  with  these  prerogatives  for  the  use 
and  benefit   of  the  lay  portion  of  Christ's  Church. 

Contrary  to  what  might  have  been  supposed,  the 
difficulty  between  the  clergy  and  laity  about  the  ex- 
emption of  clerics  from  all  lay  jurisdiction  did  not 
apparently  reach  any  very  acute  stage.  Sir  Thomas 
More  says  that  "  as  for  the  conventing  of  priests  before 
secular  judges,  the  truth  is  that  at  one  time  the  occa- 
sion of  a  sermon  made  the  matter  come  to  a  discussion 
before  the  king's  Highness.  But  neither  at  any  time 
since,  nor  many  years  before,  I  never  heard  that  there 
was  any  difficulty  about  it,  and,  moreover,  that  matter 

^  Ibid.,  cap.  vi. 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  71 

ceased  long  before  any  word  sprang  up  about  this 
great  general  division."  ^ 

One  question,  theoretical  indeed,  but  sufficiently 
practical  to  indicate  the  current  of  thought  and  feeling 
prevalent  at  the  time,  was  as  to  the  multiplication  of 
holidays  on  which  no  work  was  allowed  to  be  done 
by  ecclesiastical  law.  Saint-German,  in  common  with 
other  laymen  of  the  period,  maintained  that  the  king, 
or  Parliament,  as  representing  the  supreme  will  of  the 
State,  could  refuse  to  allow  the  spiritual  authority  to 
make  new  holidays.  About  the  Sunday  he  is  doubtful, 
though  he  inclines  to  the  opinion  that  so  long  as  there 
was  one  day  in  the  week  set  apart  for  rest  and  prayer, 
the  actual  day  could  be  determined  by  the  State.  The 
Sunday,  he  says,  is  partly  by  the  law  of  God,  partly  by 
the  law  of  man.  "  But  as  for  the  other  holidays,  these 
are  but  ceremonies,  introduced  by  the  devotion  of  the 
people  through  the  good  example  of  their  bishops  and 
priests."  And  "  if  the  multitude  of  the  holidays  is 
thought  hurtful  to  the  commonwealth,  and  tending 
rather  to  increase  vice  than  virtue,  or  to  give  occasion 
of  pride  rather  than  meekness,  as  peradventure  the 
synod  ales  and  particular  holidays  have  done  in  some 
places,  then  Parliament  has  good  authority  to  reform 
it.  But  as  for  the  holidays  that  are  kept  in  honour 
of  Our  Lady,  the  Apostles  and  other  ancient  Saints, 
these  seem  right  necessary  and  expedient."  " 

In  his  work,  Salem  and  Bizance,  which  appeared  in 
1533  as  a  reply  to  Sir  Thomas  More's  Apology,  Saint- 
German  takes  up  the  same  ground  as  in  his  more 
strictly    legal    tracts.       He    holds    that     a     distinction 

1  English  Works  (^tfh..  1557),  p.  1017. 

2  A  treaty se,  &c.,  ut  sup.,  cap.  vi.,  sig.  E.  i. 


72         THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

between  the  purely  spiritual  functions  of  the  clergy 
and  their  position  as  individuals  in  the  State  ought  to 
be  allowed  and  recognised.  The  attitude  of  ecclesi- 
astics generally  to  such  a  view  was,  perhaps  not  un- 
naturally, one  of  opposition,  and  where  the  State  had 
already  stepped  in  and  legislated,  as  for  instance  in  the 
case  of  "  mortuaries,"  their  action  in  trying  to  evade 
the  prescription  of  the  law,  Saint-German  declared 
was  doing  much  harm,  in  emphasising  a  needless  con- 
flict between  the  ecclesiastical  and  secular  jurisdiction. 
"  As  long,"  he  writes,  "  as  spiritual  rulers  will  pretend 
that  their  authority  is  so  high  and  so  immediately 
derived  from  God  that  people  are  bound  to  obey  them 
and  to  accept  all  that  they  do  and  teach  without 
argument,  resistance,  or  murmuring  against  them " 
there  will  be  discord  and  difficulty.^ 

Christopher  Saint-German's  position  was  not  by 
any  means  that  of  one  who  would  attack  the 
clergy  all  along  the  line,  and  deprive  them  of 
all  power  and  influence,  like  so  many  of  the 
foreign  sectaries  of  the  time.  He  admitted,  and 
indeed  insisted  on,  the  fact  that  they  had  received 
great  and  undoubted  powers  by  their  high  vocation, 
having  their  spiritual  jurisdiction  immediately  from 
God.  Their  temporalities,  however,  he  maintained 
they  received  from  the  secular  power,  and  were  pro- 
tected by  the  State  in  their  possession.  He  fully 
agreed  "  that  such  things  as  the  whole  clergy  of 
Christendom  teach  and  order  in  spiritual  things,  and 
which  of  long  time  have  been  by  long  custom  and 
usage    in    the    whole    body    of     Christendom    ratified, 

1  Salem  and  Bizance,  a  dialogue  betwixte  two  Englishmen,  whereof  one  was 
called  Salem  and  the  other  Bizance  (Berthelet,  1533),  f.  76- 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  73 

agreed,  and  confirmed,  by  the  spirituality  and  tem- 
porality,  ought  to  be  received  with   reverence."  ^ 

To  this  part  of  Saint-German's  book  Sir  Thomas 
More  takes  exception  in  his  Apology.  The  former  had 
said,  that  as  long  as  the  spiritual  rulers  will  pretend 
that  their  authority  is  so  high  and  so  immediately 
derived  from  God  that  the  people  are  bound  to  obey 
them  and  accept  all  that  they  do  and  teach  "  there 
would  certainly  be  divisions  and  dissensions."  "  If  he 
mean,"  replies  More,  "  that  they  speak  thus  of  all 
their  whole  authority  that  they  may  now  lawfully  do 
and  say  at  this  time  :  I  answer  that  they  neither  pre- 
tend, nor  never  did,  that  all  their  authority  is  given 
them  immediately  by  God.  They  have  authority  now 
to  do  divers  things  by  the  grant  of  kings  and  princes, 
just  as  many  temporal  men  also  have,  and  by  such 
grants  they  have  such  rights  in  such  things  as  temporal 
men  have  in  theirs."  ^ 

Some  authority  and  power  they  certainly  have  from 
God,  he  says,  "  For  the  greatest  and  highest  and  most 
excellent  authority  that  they  have,  either  God  has  Him- 
self given  it  to  them,  or  else  they  are  very  presumptuous 
and  usurp  many  things  far  above  all  reason.  For  I 
have  never  read,  or  at  least  I  do  not  remember  to  have 
read,  that  any  king  granted  them  the  authority  that  now 
not  only  prelates  but  other  poor  plain  priests  daily  take 
on  them  in  ministering  the  sacraments  and  consecrating 
the  Blessed  Body  of  Christ."  ^ 

Another  popular  book  of  the  period,  published  by 
Berthelet,  just  on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation,  is  the 
anonymous  Dialogue  between  a  Knight  and  a   Clerk  con- 

1  Ibid.,  f.  84.  2  English  Works,  p.  S92. 

3  Ibid. 


74        THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

cerning  the  power  spiritual  and  temporal.  We  are  not  here 
concerned  with  the  author's  views  as  to  the  power  of 
the  Popes,  but  only  with  what  he  states  about  the 
attitude  of  men's  minds  to  the  difficulties  consequent 
upon  the  confusion  of  the  two  jurisdictions.  Miles  (the 
Knight),  who,  of  course,  took  the  part  of  the  up- 
holder of  the  secular  power,  clearly  distinguished,  like 
Saint-German,  between  directly  spiritual  prerogatives 
and  the  authority  and  position  assured  to  the  clergy  by 
the  State.  "  God  forbid,"  he  says,  "  that  I  should  deny 
the  right  of  Holy  Church  to  know  and  correct  men  for 
their  sins.  Not  to  hold  this  would  be  to  deny  the 
sacrament  of  Penance  and  Confession  altogether."  ^ 
Moreover,  like  Saint-German,  this  author,  in  the  person 
of  Miles^  insists  that  the  temporality  "  are  bound  to  find 
the  spirituality  that  worship  and  serve  God  all  that  is 
necessary  for  them.  For  so  do  all  nations."^  But 
the  direction  of  such  temporalities  must,  he  contends, 
be  in  the  hands  of  the  State.  ''  What,"  asks  the  con- 
servative cleric,  in  the  person  of  Clericus,  "  What  have 
princes  and  kings  to  do  with  the  governance  of  our 
temporalities  ?  Let  them  take  their  own  and  order 
their  own,  and  suffer  us  to  be  in  peace  with  ours." 

"  Sir,"  replies  Miles,  "  the  princes  must  in  any  wise 
have  to  do  therewith.  I  pray  you,  ought  not  men 
above  all  things  to  mind  the  health  of  our  souls  ? 
Ought  not  we  to  see  the  wills  of  our  forefathers  ful- 
filled ?  Falleth  it  not  to  you  to  pray  for  our  fore- 
fathers that  are  passed  out  of  this  life  ?  And  did  not 
our  fathers  give  you  our  temporalities  right  plentifully, 
to  the  intent  that  you  should  pray  for  them  and  spend 
it  all  to  the  honour  of  God  ?     And  ye  do  nothing  so  ; 

^  A  Dialogue,  &c.,  tti  sup.,  f.  8.  ^  Ibid.,  f.  ii. 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  75 

but  ye  spend  your  temporalities  in  sinful  deeds  and 
vanities,  which  temporalities  ye  should  spend  in  works 
of  charity,  and  in  alms-deeds  to  the  poor  and  needy. 
For  to  this  purpose  our  forefathers  gave  '  great  and 
huge  dominions.'  You  have  received  them  '  to  the 
intent  to  have  clothes  and  food  .  .  .  and  all  overplus 
besides  these  you  ought  to  spend  on  deeds  of  mercy 
and  pity,  as  on  poor  people  that  are  in  need,  and  on 
such  as  are  sick  and  diseased  and  oppressed  with 
misery.' "  ^ 

Further,  Miles  hints  that  there  are  many  at  that 
time  who  were  casting  hungry  eyes  upon  the  riches  of 
the  Church,  and  that  were  it  not  for  the  protecting  power 
of  the  State,  the  clergy  would  soon  find  that  they 
were  in  worse  plight  than  they  think  themselves  to  be. 
And,  in  answer  to  the  complaints  of  Clericus  that  ecclesi- 
astics are  taxed  too  hardly  for  money  to  be  spent  on 
soldiers,  ships,  and  engines  of  war,  he  tells  him  that 
there  is  no  reason  in  the  nature  of  things  why  eccle- 
siastical property  should  not  bear  the  burden  of 
national  works  as  well  as  every  other  kind  of  wealth. 
"  I  pray  you  hold  your  noise,"  he  exclaims  somewhat 
rudely  ;  "  stop  your  grudging  and  grumbling,  and  listen 
patiently.  Look  at  your  many  neighbours  round  about 
you  in  the  land,  who,  wanting  the  wherewith  to  support 
life,  gape  still  after  your  goods.  If  the  king's  power 
failed,  what  rest  should  you  have  ?  Would  not  the 
gentlemen  such  as  be  needy,  and  such  as  have  spent 
their  substance  prodigally,  when  they  have  consumed 
their  own,  turn  to  yours,  and  waste  and  destroy  all 
you  have  ?  Therefore,  the  king's  strength  is  to  you 
instead   of   a   strong  wall,  and   you   wot  well  that  the 

'  Ibid.,  f.  14. 


76        THE   EVE   OF  THE  REFORMATION 

king's  peace  is  your  peace,    and   the    king's  safeguard 
is  your  safeguard."  ^ 

The  foregoing  pages  represent  some  of  the  prac- 
tical difficulties  which  were  being  experienced  on  the 
eve  of  the  Reformation  between  the  ecclesiastical  and 
lay  portion  of  the  State  in  the  question  of  jurisdiction. 
Everything  points  to  the  fact  that  the  chief  difficulty 
was  certainly  not  religious.  The  ecclesiastical  juris- 
diction in  matters  spiritual  was  cordially  admitted  by 
all  but  a  few  fanatics.  What  even  many  church- 
men objected  to,  were  the  claims  for  exemption 
put  forward  by  ecclesiastics  in  the  name  of  religion, 
which  they  felt  to  be  a  stretching  of  spiritual  prero- 
gatives into  the  domain  of  the  temporal  sovereign. 
History  has  shown  that  most  of  these  claims  have  in 
practice  been  disallowed,  not  only  without  detriment 
to  the  spiritual  work  of  the  Church,  but  in  some  in- 
stances at  least  it  was  the  frank  recognition  of  the  State 
rights,  which,  under  Providence,  saved  nations  from 
the  general  defection  which  seemed  to  threaten  the 
old  ecclesiastical  system.  Most  of  the  difficulties 
which  were,  as  we  have  seen,  experienced  and  debated 
in  England  were  unfelt  in  Spain,  where  the  sovereign 
from  the  first  made  his  position  as  to  the  temporalities 
of  the  Church  clearly  understood  by  all.  In  Naples, 
in  like  manner,  the  right  of  State  patronage,  however 
objectionable  to  the  ecclesiastical  legists,  was  strictly 
maintained.  In  France,  the  danger  which  at  one  time 
threatened  an  overthrow  of  religion  similar  to  that 
which  had  fallen  on  Germany,  and  which  at  the  time 
was  looming  dark  over  England,  was  averted  by  the 
celebrated  Concordat  between   Leo  X.  and  Francis   I. 

^  A  Dialogue,  &c.,  tit  sup.,  p.  17. 


THE  TWO  JURISDICTIONS  77 

By  this  settlement  of  outstanding  difficulties  between 
the  two  jurisdictions,  all  rights  of  election  to  ecclesi- 
astical dignities  was  swept  away  with  the  full  and 
express  sanction  of  the  Pope.  The  nomination  of 
all  bishops  and  other  dignitaries  was  vested  in  the 
king,  subject,  of  course,  to  Papal  confirmation.  All 
appeals  were,  in  the  first  place,  to  be  carried  in  or- 
dinary cases  to  immediate  superiors  acting  in  the  fixed 
tribunals  of  the  country,  and  then  only  to  the  Holy 
See.  The  Papal  power  of  appointment  to  benefices 
was  by  this  agreement  strictly  limited  ;  and  the  policy 
of  the  document  was  generally  directed  to  securing 
the  most  important  ecclesiastical  positions,  including 
even  parish  churches  in  towns,  to  educated  men.  It 
is  to  this  settlement  of  outstanding  difficulties,  the 
constant  causes  of  friction — a  settlement  of  difficulties 
which  must  be  regarded  as  economic  and  administra- 
tive rather  than  as  religious — that  so  good  a  judge 
as  M.  Hanotaux,  the  statesman  and  historian,  attributes 
nothing  less  than  the  maintenance  of  the  old  religion 
in  France.  In  his  opinion,  this  Concordat  did  in  fact 
remove,  to  a  great  extent,  the  genuine  grievances  which 
had  long  been  felt  by  the  people  at  large,  which  else- 
where the  Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century  skilfully 
seized  upon,  as  likely  to  afford  them  the  most  plausible 
means  for  furthering  their  schemes  of  change  in  matters 
strictly  religious. 


CHAPTER   IV 

ENGLAND   AND   THE   POPE 

Nothing  is  more  necessary  for  one  who  desires  to 
appreciate  the  true  meaning  of  the  EngHsh  Reforma- 
tion than  to  understand  the  attitude  of  men's  minds 
to  the  Pope  and  the  See  of  Rome  on  the  eve  of  the 
great  change.  As  in  the  event,  the  rehgious  upheaval 
did,  in  fact,  lead  to  a  national  rejection  of  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  it  is  not  unnatural  that 
those  who  do  not  look  below  the  surface  should  see 
in  this  act  the  outcome  and  inevitable  consequence 
of  long-continued  irritation  at  a  foreign  domination. 
The  renunciation  of  Papal  jurisdiction,  in  other  words, 
is  taken  as  sufficient  evidence  of  national  hostility  to 
the  Holy  See.  If  this  be  the  true  explanation  of  the 
fact,  it  is  obvious  that  in  the  literature  of  the  period 
immediately  preceding  the  formal  renunciation  of 
ecclesiastical  dependence  on  Rome,  evidence  more  or 
less  abundant  will  be  found  of  this  feeling  of  dislike, 
if  not  of  detestation,  for  a  yoke  which  we  are  told 
had  become  unbearable. 

At  the  outset,  it  must  be  confessed  that  any  one 
who  will  go  to  the  literature  of  the  period  with  the 
expectation  of  collecting  evidence  of  this  kind  is 
doomed  to  disappointment.  If  we  put  on  one  side 
the    diatribes    and    scurrilous    invectives    of    advanced 

reformers,  when  the  day  of  the  doctrinal   Reformation 

78 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  79 

had  already  dawned,  the  inquirer  in  this  field  of  know- 
ledge can  hardly  fail  to  be  struck  by  the  absence  of 
indications  of  any  real  hostility  to  the  See  of  Rome  in 
the  period  in  question.  So  far  as  the  works  of  the  age 
are  concerned  :  so  far,  too,  as  the  acts  of  individuals 
and  even  of  those  who  were  responsible  agents  of  the 
State  go,  the  evidence  of  an  unquestioned  acceptance 
of  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope,  as  Head  of 
the  Christian  Church,  is  simply  overwhelming.  In 
their  acceptance  of  this  supreme  authority  the  English 
were  perhaps  neither  demonstrative  nor  loudly  pro- 
testing, but  this  in  no  way  derogated  from  their  loyal 
and  unquestioning  acceptance  of  the  supremacy  of  the 
Holy  See.  History  shows  that  up  to  the  very  eve 
of  the  rejection  of  this  supremacy  the  attitude  of 
Englishmen,  in  spite  of  difficulties  and  misunderstand- 
ings, had  been  persistently  one  of  respect  for  the 
Pope  as  their  spiritual  head.  Whilst  other  nations  of 
Christendom  had  been  in  the  past  centuries  engaged  in 
endeavours  by  diplomacy,  and  even  by  force  of 
arms,  to  capture  the  Pope  that  they  might  use  him 
for  their  own  national  profit,  England,  with  nothing 
to  gain,  expecting  nothing,  seeking  nothing,  had  never 
entered  on  that  line  of  policy,  but  had  been  content  to 
bow  to  his  authority  as  to  that  of  the  appointed  Head 
of  Christ's  Church  on  earth.  Of  this  much  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  They  did  not  reason  about  it,  nor  sift 
and  sort  the  grounds  of  their  acceptance,  any  more 
than  a  child  would  dream  of  searching  into,  or 
philosophising  upon,  the  obedience  he  freely  gives  to 
his  parents. 

That  there  were  at  times  disagreements  and  quarrels 
may  be  admitted  without  in  the  least  affecting  the  real 


8o        THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

attitude  and  uninterrupted  spiritual  dependence  of 
England  on  the  Holy  See.  Such  disputes  were 
wholly  the  outcome  of  misunderstandings  as  to  matters 
in  the  domain  rather  of  the  temporal  than  of  the 
spiritual,  or  of  points  in  the  broad  debatable  land  that 
lies  between  the  two  jurisdictions.  It  is  a  failure  to 
understand  the  distinction  which  exists  between  these 
that  has  led  many  writers  to  think  that  in  the  rejection 
by  Englishmen  of  claims  put  forward  at  various  times 
by  the  Roman  curia  in  matters  wholly  temporal,  or 
where  the  temporal  became  involved  in  the  spiritual, 
they  have  a  proof  that  England  never  fully  acknow- 
ledged the  spiritual  headship  of  the  See  of  Rome. 

That  the  Pope  did  in  fact  exercise  great  powers 
in  England  over  and  above  those  in  his  spiritual  pre- 
rogative is  a  matter  of  history.  No  one  has  more 
thoroughly  examined  this  subject  than  Professor  Mait- 
land,  and  the  summary  of  his  conclusions  given  in  his 
History  of  English  Law  will  serve  to  correct  many 
misconceptions  upon  the  matter.  What  he  says  may 
be  taken  as  giving  a  fairly  accurate  picture  of  the 
relations  of  the  Christian  nations  of  Christendom  to 
the  Holy  See  from  the  twelfth  century  to  the  dis- 
integration of  the  system  in  the  throes  of  the  Refor- 
mation. "  It  was  a  wonderful  system,"  he  writes. 
"  The  whole  of  Western  Europe  was  subject  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  one  tribunal  of  last  resort,  the  Roman 
curia.  Appeals  to  it  were  encouraged  by  all  manner 
of  means,  appeals  at  almost  every  stage  of  almost  every 
proceeding.  But  the  Pope  was  far  more  than  the 
president  of  a  court  of  appeal.  Very  frequently  the 
courts  Christian  which  did  justice  in  England  were 
courts  which   were   acting    under   his    supervision    and 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  81 

carrying  out  his  written  instructions.  A  very  large 
part,  and  by  far  the  most  permanently  important  part, 
of  the  ecclesiastical  litigation  that  went  on  in  this 
country  came  before  English  prelates  who  were  sitting 
not  as  EngHsh  prelates,  not  as  'judges  ordinary,'  but 
as  mere  delegates  of  the  Pope,  commissioned  to  hear 
and  determine  this  or  that  particular  case.  Bracton, 
indeed,  treats  the  Pope  as  the  ordinary  judge  of 
every  Englishman  in  spiritual  things,  and  the  only 
ordinary  judge  whose  powers  are  unlimited." 

The  Pope  enjoyed  a  power  of  declaring  the  law  to 
which  but  very  wide  and  very  vague  limits  could  be  set. 
Each  separate  church  might  have  its  customs,  but  there 
was  a  lex  communis,  a  common  law,  of  the  universal  Church. 
In  the  view  of  the  canonist,  any  special  rules  of  the  Church 
of  England  have  hardly  a  wider  scope,  hardly  a  less  de- 
pendent place,  than  have  the  customs  of  Kent  or  the  bye- 
laws  of  London  in  the  eye  of  the  English  lawyer.^ 

We  have  only  to  examine  the  Rcgcsta  of  the  Popes, 
even  up  to  the  dawn  of  difficulties  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.,  to  see  that  the  system  as  sketched  in  this 
passage  was  in  full  working  order  ;  and  it  was  herein 
that  chiefly  lay  the  danger  even  to  the  spiritual  preroga- 
tives of  the  Head  of  the  Church.      Had  the  Providence 

^  History  of  English  Law,  i.,  p.  93-4.  Mr.  James  Gairdner,  in  a  letter  to 
The  Guardian,  March  I,  1899,  says:  "There  were,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  in 
every  kingdom  of  Europe  that  owned  the  Pope's  jurisdiction,  two  authorities, 
the  one  temporal  and  the  other  spiritual,  and  the  head  of  the  spiritual  juris- 
diction was  at  Rome.  The  bishops  had  the  rule  over  their  clergy,  even  in 
criminal  matters,  and  over  the  laity  as  well  in  matters  of  faith.  Even  a 
bishop's  decision,  it  is  true,  might  be  disputed,  and  there  was  an  appeal  to  the 
Pope  ;  nay,  the  Pope's  decision  might  be  disputed,  and  there  was  an  appeal  to  a 
■general  council.  Thus  there  was,  in  every  kingdom,  an  impeiiuvi  in  imperio, 
but  nobody  objected  to  such  a  state  of  matters,  not  even  kings,  seeing  that 
they  could,  as  a  rule,  get  anything  they  wanted  out  of  the  Popes— even  some 
things,  occasionally,  that  the  Popes  ought  not  to  have  conceded." 

F 


82         THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

of  God  destined  that  the  nations  of  the  world  should 
have  become  a  Christendom  in  fact — a  theocracy  pre- 
sided over  by  his  Vicar  on  earth — the  system  elaborated 
by  the  Roman  curia  would  not  have  tended  doubtless 
to  obscure  the  real  and  essential  prerogatives  of  the 
spiritual  Head  of  the  Christian  Church.  As  it  was  by 
Providence  ordained,  and  as  subsequent  events  have 
shown,  claims  of  authority  to  determine  matters  more 
or  less  of  the  temporal  order,  together  with  the  worldly 
pomp  and  show  with  which  the  Popes  of  the  renais- 
sance had  surrounded  themselves,  not  only  tended  to 
obscure  the  higher  and  supernatural  powers  which  are 
the  enduring  heritage  of  St.  Peter's  successors  in  the 
See  of  Rome  ;  but,  however  clear  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  necessary  and  the  accidental  prerogatives 
might  appear  to  the  mind  of  the  trained  theologian  or 
the  perception  of  the  saint,  to  the  ordinary  man,  when 
the  one  was  called  in  question  the  other  was  imperilled. 
And,  as  a  fact,  in  England  popular  irritation  at  the 
interference  of  the  spirituality  generally  in  matters  not 
wholly  within  the  strictly  ecclesiastical  sphere  was,  at  a 
given  moment,  skilfully  turned  by  the  small  reforming 
party  into  national,  if  tacit,  acquiescence  in  the  rejection 
of  even  the  spiritual  prerogatives  of  the  Roman  Pontiffs. 
It  is  necessary  to  insist  upon  this  matter  if  the  full 
meaning  of  the  Reformation  movement  is  to  be  under- 
stood. Here  in  England,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  on 
the  one  hand,  that  no  nation  more  fully  and  freely 
bowed  to  the  spiritual  supremacy  of  the  Holy  See  ;  on 
the  other,  that  there  was  a  dislike  of  interference  in 
matters  which  they  regarded,  rightly  or  wrongly,  as 
outside  the  sphere  of  the  Papal  prerogative.  The 
national   feeling   had  grown    by   leaps  and   bounds  in 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  83 

the  early  years  of  the  sixteenth   century.      But  it  was 
not   until    the    ardent    spirits    among   the  doctrinal   re- 
formers had  succeeded  in  weakening  the  hold  of  Catho- 
licity in  religion  on  the  hearts  of  the  people  that  this 
rise    of    national   feeling  entered  into  the  ecclesiastical 
domain,  and  the  love  of  country  could  be  effectually 
used  to  turn  them  against  the   Pope,  even  as  Head  of 
the    Christian    Church.     With    this   distinction    clearly 
before  the  mind,  it  is  possible  to  understand  the  general 
attitude   of    the    English   nation   to   the   Pope   and  his 
authority  on  the  eve  of  the  overthrow  of  his  jurisdiction. 
To  begin  with  some  evidence  of  popular  teaching 
as  to  the  Pope's  position  as  Head  of  the  Church,      It  is, 
of  course,  evident  that  in  many  works  the  supremacy 
of  the  Holy  See  is  assumed  and  not  positively  stated. 
This    is    exactly   what   we    should    expect    in   a   matter 
which  was  certainly  taken  for  granted  by  all.     William 
Bond,    a   learned  priest,   and   subsequently  a  monk  of 
Syon,  with  Richard  Whitford,  was  the  author  of  a  book 
called  the  Pilgrimage  of  Perfection,  published  by  Wynkyn 
de  Worde  in    1531.      It  is  a  work,  as  the  author  tells 
us,  "  very  profitable  to  all  Christian  persons  to  read  "  ; 
and  the  third  book  consists  of  a  long  and  careful  ex- 
planation of   the  Creed.     In  the  section  treating  about 
the  tenth  article  is  to  be  found  a  very  complete  state- 
ment of  the  teaching  of  the  Christian  religion   on  the 
Church.     After   taking   the   marks   of   the   Church,   the 
author  says  :  "  There  may  be  set  no  other  foundation 
for  the   Church,   but   only  that  which  is  put,  namely, 
Christ  Jesus.      It  is  certain,  since  it  is  founded  on  the 
Apostles,    as   our   Lord   said   to    Peter,   '  I  have  prayed 
that  thy  faith  fail  not.'      And  no  more  it  shall  ;  for  (as 
St.  Cyprian  says)  the  Church  of  Rome  was  never  yet 


84        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

the  root  of  heresy.  This  Church  ApostoHc  is  so  named 
the  Church  of  Rome,  because  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul, 
who  under  Christ  were  heads  and  princes  of  this 
Church,  deposited  there  the  tabernacles  of  their  bodies, 
which  God  willed  should  be  buried  there  and  rest  in 
Rome,  and  that  should  be  the  chief  see  in  the  world  ; 
just  as  commonly  in  all  other  places  the  chief  see  of 
the  bishop  is  where  the  chief  saint  and  bishop  of  the 
see  is  buried.  By  this  you  may  know  how  Christ  is  the 
Head  of  the  Church,  and  how  our  Holy  Father  the  Pope 
of  Rome  is  Head  of  the  Church.  Many,  because  they 
know  not  this  mystery  of  Holy  Scripture,  have  erred 
and  fallen  to  heresies  in  denying  the  excellent  dignity 
of  our  Holy  Father  the  Pope  of  Rome."  ^ 

In  the  same  way  Roger  Edgworth,  a  preacher  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  speaking  on  the  text  "  Tu 
vocaberis  Cephas"  says :  "  And  by  this  the  error  and 
ignorance  of  certain  summalists  are  confounded,  who 
take  this  text  as  one  of  their  strongest  reasons  for  the 
supremacy  of  the  Pope  of  Rome.  In  so  doing,  such 
summalists  would  plainly  destroy  the  text  of  St.  John's 
Gospel  to  serve  their  purpose,  which  they  have  no 
need  to  do,  for  there  are  as  well  texts  of  Holy  Scripture 
and  passages  of  ancient  writers  which  abundantly  prove 
the  said  primacy  of  the  Pope."  ^ 

When  by  1523  the  attacks  of  Luther  and  his 
followers  on  the  position  of  the  Pope  had  turned 
men's  minds  in  England  to  the  question,  and  caused 
them  to  examine  into  the  grounds  of  their  belief,  several 
books  on  the  subject  appeared  in  England.  One  in 
particular,    intended    to    be    subsidiary  to    the    volume 

1  William  Bond,  The  Pilgrymage  of  pa-feccyo7i,  1531,  f.  223. 
-  Roger  Edgworth,  Set'ntons,  1557,  fol.  102 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  85 

published  by  the  king  himself  against  Luther,  was 
written  by  a  theologian  named  Edward  Powell,  and 
published  by  Pynson  in  London.  In  his  preface, 
Powell  says  that  before  printing  his  work  he  had 
submitted  it  to  the  most  learned  authority  at  Oxford 
{eruditissimo  Oxoniensiuni).  The  first  part  of  the  book 
is  devoted  to  a  scientific  treatise  upon  the  Pope's 
supremacy,  with  all  the  proofs  from  Scripture  and  the 
Fathers  set  out  in  detail.  "This  then,"  he  concludes, 
"is  the  Catholic  Church,  which,  having  the  Roman 
Pontiff,  the  successor  of  Peter,  as  its  head,  offers  the 
means  of  sanctifying  the  souls  of  all  its  members,  and 
testifies  to  the  truth  of  all  that  is  to  be  taught."  The 
high  priesthood  of  Peter  "  is  said  to  be  Roman,  not 
because  it  cannot  be  elsewhere,  but  through  a  certain 
congruity  which  makes  Rome  the  most  fitting  place. 
That  is,  that  where  the  centre  of  the  world's  government 
was,  there  also  should  be  placed  the  high  priesthood  of 
Christ.  Just  as  of  old  the  summus  Pontifex  was  in 
Jerusalem,  the  metropolis  of  the  Jewish  nation,  so  now 
it  is  in  Rome,  the  centre  of  Christian  civilisation."  ^ 

We  naturally,  of  course,  turn  to  the  works  of 
Sir  Thomas  More  for  evidence  of  the  teaching  as  to 
the  Pope's  position  at  this  period  ;  and  his  testimony 
is  abundant  and  definite.  Thus  in  the  second  book 
of  his  Dyalogur,  written  in  1528,  arguing  that  there 
must  be  unity  in  the  Church  of  Christ,  he  points  out 
that  the  effect  of  Lutheranism  has  been  to  breed  diver- 
sity of  faith  and  practice.  "  Though  they  began  so 
late,"  he  writes,  "yet  there  are  not  only  as  many  sects 
almost  as  men,  but  also  the  masters  themselves  change 

^  Edward    Powell,  Propiignaaihim  suvimi  sacerdotii,   &c.,    adverstis   M. 
Lutherwn,  1523,  fol.  22  and  fol.  35. 


86        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

their  minds  and  their  opinions  every  day.  Bohemia 
is  also  in  the  same  case  :  one  faith  in  the  town,  another 
in  the  field  ;  one  in  Prague,  another  in  the  next  town  ; 
and  yet  in  Prague  itself,  one  faith  in  one  street,  another 
in  the  next.  And  yet  all  these  acknowledge  that  they 
cannot  have  the  Sacraments  ministered  but  by  such 
priests  as  are  made  by  authority  derived  and  conveyed 
from  the  Pope  who  is,  under  Christ,  Vicar  and  head  of 
our  Church."  ^  It  is  important  to  note  in  this  passage 
how  the  author  takes  for  granted  the  Pope's  supreme 
authority  over  the  Christian  Church.  To  this  subject 
he  returns,  and  is  more  explicit  in  a  later  chapter  of 
the  same  book.  The  Church,  he  says,  is  the  "com- 
pany and  congregation  of  all  nations  professing  the 
name  of  Christ."  This  church  "  has  begun  with  Christ, 
and  has  had  Him  for  its  head  and  St.  Peter  His  Vicar 
after  Him,  and  the  head  under  Him  ;  and  always  since, 
the  successors  of  him  continually.  And  it  has  had  His 
holy  faith  and  His  blessed  Sacraments  and  His  holy 
Scriptures  delivered,  kept,  and  conserved  therein  by 
God  and  His  Holy  Spirit,  and  albeit  some  nations  fall 
away,  yet  just  as  no  matter  how  many  boughs  what- 
ever fall  from  the  tree,  even  though  more  fall  than 
be  left  thereon,  still  there  is  no  doubt  which  is  the 
very  tree,  although  each  of  them  were  planted  again  in 
another  place  and  grew  to  a  greater  than  the  stock  it 
first  came  off,  in  the  same  way  we  see  and  know  well 
that  all  the  companies  and  sects  of  heretics  and  schis- 
matics, however  great  they  grow,  come  out  of  this  Church 
I  speak  of  ;  and  we  know  that  the  heretics  are  they 
that  are  severed,  and  the  Church  the  stock  that  they  all 
come  out  of."  -     Here  Sir  Thomas  More  expressly  gives 

1  E7iglish  Works,  p.  171.  "  Ibid.,  p.  1S5. 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  87 

communion  with  the  successors  of  St.  Peter  as  one 
of  the  chief  tests  of  the  true  Church. 

Again,  in  his  Confutation  of  Tyndale's  Answer,  written 
in  1532  when  he  was  Lord  Chancellor,  Sir  Thomas 
More  speaks  specially  about  the  absolute  necessity  of 
the  Church  being  One  and  not  able  to  teach  error. 
There  is  one  known  and  recognised  Church  existing 
throughout  the  world,  which  "  is  that  mystical  body  be 
it  never  so  sick."  Of  this  mystical  body  "  Christ  is  the 
principal  head  "  ;  and  it  is  no  part  of  his  concern,  he 
says,  for  the  moment  to  determine  ''  whether  the  suc- 
cessor of  St.  Peter  is  his  vicar-general  and  head  under 
him,  as  all  Christian  nations  have  now  long  taken  him."  1 
Later  on  he  classes  himself  with  "  poor  popish  men,"  ^ 
and  in  the  fifth  book  he  discusses  the  question  "  whether 
the  Pope  and  his  sect "  (as  Tyndale  called  them)  "  is 
Christ's  Church  or  no."  On  this  matter  More  is  per- 
fectly clear.  "  I  call  the  Church  of  Christ,"  he  says, 
"  the  known  Catholic  Church  of  all  Christian  nations, 
neither  gone  out  nor  cut  off.  And  although  all  these 
nations  do  now  and  have  long  since  recognised  and 
acknowledged  the  Pope,  not  as  the  bishop  of  Rome 
but  as  the  successor  of  St.  Peter,  to  be  their  chief 
spiritual  governor  under  God  and  Christ's  Vicar  on 
earth,  yet  I  never  put  the  Pope  as  part  of  the  defini- 
tion of  the  Church,  by  defining  it  to  be  the  common 
known  congregation  of  all  Christian  nations  under  one 
head  the  Pope." 

I  avoided  this  definition  purposely,  he  continues, 
so  as  not  *'  to  entangle  the  matter  with  the  two  ques- 
tions at  once,  for  I  knew  well  that  the  Church  being 
proved  this  common  known  Catholic  congregation  of 

1  Ibid.,  p.  528.  2  ibjd,^  p.  238. 


88         THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

all  Christian  nations  abiding  together  in  one  faith, 
neither  fallen  nor  cut  off ;  there  might,  peradventure, 
be  made  a  second  question  after  that,  whether  over 
all  this  Catholic  Church  the  Pope  must  needs  be  head 
and  chief  governor  and  chief  spiritual  shepherd,  or 
whether,  if  the  unity  of  the  faith  was  kept  among 
them  all,  every  province  might  have  its  own  spiritual 
chief  over  itself,  without  any  recourse  unto  the 
Pope.   .  .  . 

"  For  the  avoiding  of  all  such  intricacies,  I  pur- 
posely abstained  from  putting  the  Pope  as  part  of 
the  definition  of  the  Church,  as  a  thing  that  was  not 
necessary  ;  for  if  he  be  the  necessary  head,  he  is  in- 
cluded in  the  name  of  the  whole  body,  and  whether 
he  be  or  not  is  a  matter  to  be  treated  and  disputed 
of  besides"  (p.  615).  As  to  Tyndale's  railing  against 
the  authority  of  the  Pope  because  there  have  been 
"  Popes  that  have  evil  played  their  parts,"  he  should 
remember,  says  More,  that  "  there  have  been  Popes 
again  right  holy  men,  saints  and  martyrs  too,"  and 
that,  moreover,  the  personal  question  of  goodness  or 
badness  has  nothing  to  say  to  the  office.^ 

In  like  manner,  More,  when  arguing  against  Friar 
Barnes,  says  that  like  the  Donatists  "  these  heretics 
call  the  Catholic  Christian  people  papists,"  and  in  this 
they  are  right,  since  "  Saint  Austin  called  the  successor 
of  Saint  Peter  the  chief  head  on  earth  of  the  whole 
Catholic  Church,  as  well  as  any  man  does  now."  He 
here  plainly  states  his  view  of  the  supremacy  of  the  See 
of  Rome."  He  accepted  it  not  only  as  an  antiquarian 
fact,  but  as  a  thing  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the 
unity  of  the  Faith.      Into  the  further  question  whether 

^  English  Works,  p.  6i6.  "  Ibid.,  p.  798. 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  89 

the  office  of  supreme  pastor  was  established  by  Christ 
Himself,  or,  as  theologians  would  say,  de  jure  divino, 
or  whether  it  had  grown  with  the  growth  and  needs 
of  the  Church,  More  did  not  then  enter.  The  fact  was 
sufficient  for  him  that  the  only  Christian  Church  he 
recognised  had  for  long  ages  regarded  the  Pope  as 
the  Pastor  pasforiim,  the  supreme  spiritual  head  of  the 
Church  of  Christ.  His  own  words,  almost  at  the  end 
of  his  life,  are  the  best  indication  of  his  mature  con- 
clusion on  this  matter.  "  I  have,"  he  says,  "  by  the 
grace  of  God,  been  always  a  Catholic,  never  out  of 
communion  with  the  Roman  Pontiff  ;  but  I  have  heard 
it  said  at  times  that  the  authority  of  the  Roman  Pontiff 
was  certainly  lawful  and  to  be  respected,  but  still  an 
authority  derived  from  human  law,  and  not  standing  upon 
a  divine  prescription.  Then,  when  I  observed  that  public 
affairs  were  so  ordered  that  the  sources  of  the  power 
of  the  Roman  Pontiff  would  necessarily  be  examined,  I 
gave  myself  up  to  a  diligent  examination  of  that  question 
for  the  space  of  seven  years,  and  found  that  the  author- 
ity of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  which  you  rashly — I  will 
not  use  stronger  language — have  set  aside,  is  not  only 
lawful  to  be  respected  and  necessary,  but  also  grounded 
on  the  divine  law  and  prescription.  That  is  my  opinion, 
that  is  the  belief  in  which,  by  the  grace  of  God,  I  shall 
die." ' 

Looking  at  More's  position  in  regard  to  this  ques- 
tion in  the  light  of  all  that  he  has  written,  it  would 
seem  to  be  certain  that  he  never  for  a.  moment  doubted 
that  the  Papacy  was  necessary  for  the  Church.  He 
accepted  this  without  regard  to  the  reasons  of  the  faith 
that  was  in  him,  and  in  this  he  was  not  different  from 

^  Henry  VIII.  and  the  English  Monasteries  (popular  edition),  p.  367. 


90        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

the  body  of  Englishmen  at  large.  When,  in  1522, 
the  book  by  Henry  VIII.  appeared  against  Luther, 
it  drew  the  attention  of  Sir  Thomas  specially  to  a 
consideration  of  the  grounds  upon  which  the  suprem- 
acy of  the  Pope  was  held  by  Catholics.  As  the  result 
of  his  examination  he  became  so  convinced  that  it  was 
of  divine  institution  that  "  my  conscience  would  be 
in  right  great  peril,"  he  says,  "  if  I  should  follow  the 
other  side  and  deny  the  primacy  to  be  provided  of 
God."  Even  before  examination  More  evidently  held 
implicitly  the  same  ideas,  since  in  his  Latin  book  against 
Luther,  published  in  1523,  he  declared  his  entire 
agreement  with  Bishop  Fisher  on  the  subject.  That 
the  latter  was  fully  acquainted  with  the  reasons  which 
went  to  prove  that  the  Papacy  was  of  divine  institution, 
and  that  he  fully  accepted  it  as  such,  is  certain.^ 

When,  with  the  failure  of  the  divorce  proceedings, 
came  the  rejection  of  Papal  supremacy  in  England, 
there  were  plenty  of  people  ready  to  take  the  winning 
side,  urging  that  the  rejection  was  just,  and  not  con- 
trary to  the  true  conception  of  the  Christian  Church. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  all  the  pulpit  tirades 
against  the  Pope  and  what  was  called  his  "  usurped 
supremacy,"  there  is  no  suggestion  that  this  supremacy 
had  not  hitherto  been  fully  and  freely  recognised  by 
all  in  the  country.  On  the  contrary,  the  change  was 
regarded  as  a  happy  emancipation   from  an  authority 

^  In  his  work  against  Luther,  Bishop  Fisher  teaches  the  supremacy  of  the 
Pope  without  any  ambiguity.  In  the  Sermon  had  at  Paulis  against  Luther 
and  his  followers,  he  also  put  his  position  perfectly  clearly.  The  Church  that 
has  a  right  to  the  name  Catholic  has  derived  the  right  from  its  communion 
with  the  See  of  Peter.  Our  Lord  called  Cephas,  Peter,  or  rock,  to  signify  that 
upon  him  as  a  rock  He  would  build  His  church.  Unto  Peter  He  committed  His 
flock,  and  "  the  true  Christian  people  which  we  have  at  this  day  was  derived 
by  a  continual  succession  from  the  See  of  Peter  "  (fol.  e.  4.  d.). 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  POPE  91 

which  had  been  hitherto  submitted  to  without  ques- 
tion or  doubt.  A  sermon  preached  at  St.  Paul's  the 
Sunday  after  the  execution  of  the  Venerable  Bishop 
Fisher,  and  a  few  days  before  Sir  Thomas  More  was 
called  to  lay  down  his  life  for  the  same  cause,  is  of 
interest,  as  specially  making  mention  of  these  two 
great  men,  and  of  the  reasons  which  had  forced  them 
to  lay  down  their  lives  in  the  Pope's  quarrel.  The 
preacher  was  one  Simon  Matthew,  and  his  object  was 
to  instruct  the  people  in  the  new  theory  of  the  Christian 
Church  necessary  on  the  rejection  of  the  headship  of 
the  Pope.  "  The  diversity  of  regions  and  countries," 
he  says,  "  does  not  make  any  diversity  of  churches, 
but  a  unity  of  faith  makes  all  regions  one  Church." 
"  There  was,"  he  continued,  "  no  necessity  to  know 
Peter,  as  many  have  reckoned,  in  the  Bishop  of  Rome, 
(teaching)  that  except  we  knew  him  and  his  holy 
college,  we  could  not  be  of  Christ's  Church.  Many 
have  thought  it  necessary  that  if  a  man  would  be  a 
member  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  he  must  belong  to 
the  holy  church  of  Rome  and  take  the  Holy  Father 
thereof  for  the  supreme  Head  and  for  the  Vicar  of 
Christ,  yea  for  Christ  Himself,  (since)  to  be  divided 
from  him  was  even  to  be  divided  from  Christ."  This, 
the  preacher  informs  his  audience,  is  "  damnable  teach- 
ing," and  that  "  the  Bishop  of  Rome  has  no  more 
power  by  the  laws  of  God  in  this  realm  than  any  foreign 
bishop." 

He  then  goes  on  to  speak  of  what  was,  no  doubt, 
in  everybody's  mind  at  the  time,  the  condemnation  of 
the  two  eminent  Englishmen  for  upholding  the  ancient 
teachings  as  to  the  Pope's  spiritual  headship.  "  Of 
late,"    he   says,    "  you   have    had    experience   of    some. 


92         THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

whom  neither  friends  nor  kinsfolk,  nor  the  judgment 
of  both  universities,  Cambridge  and  Oxford,  nor  the 
universal  consent  of  all  the  clergy  of  this  realm,  nor 
the  laws  of  the  Parliament,  nor  their  most  natural  and 
loving  prince,  could  by  any  gentle  ways  revoke  from 
their  disobedience,  but  would  needs  persist  therein, 
giving  pernicious  occasion  to  the  multitude  to  murmur 
and  grudge  at  the  king's  laws,  seeing  that  they  were 
men  of  estimation  and  would  be  seen  wiser  than  all 
the  realm  and  of  better  conscience  than  others,  justify- 
ing themselves  and  condemning  all  the  realm  besides. 
These  being  condemned  and  the  king's  prisoners,  yet 
did  not  cease  to  conceive  ill  of  our  sovereign,  refusing 
his  laws,  but  even  in  prison  wrote  to  their  mutual 
comfort  in  their  damnable  opinions.  I  mean  Doctor 
Fisher  and  Sir  Thomas  More,  whom  I  am  as  sorry  to 
name  as  any  man  here  is  to  hear  named  :  sorry  for 
that  they,  being  sometime  men  of  worship  and  honour, 
men  of  famous  learning  and  many  excellent  graces 
and  so  tenderly  sometime  beloved  by  their  prince, 
should  thus  unkindly,  unnaturally,  and  traitorously  use 
themselves.  Our  Lord  give  them  grace  to  be  repen- 
tant !  Let  neither  their  fame,  learning,  nor  honour 
move  you  loving  subjects  from  your  prince  ;  but  regard 
ye  the  truth." 

The  preacher  then  goes  on  to  condemn  the  coarse 
style  of  preaching  against  the  Pope  in  which  some 
indulged  at  that  time.  "  I  would  exhort,"  he  says, 
'<  such  as  are  of  my  sort  and  use  preaching,  so  to 
temper  their  words  that  they  be  not  noted  to  speak  of 
stomach  and  rather  to  prate  than  preach.  Nor  would 
I  have  the  defenders  of  the  king's  matters  rage  and  rail, 
or  scold,  as  many  are  thought  to  do,  calling  the  Bishop 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  93 

of  Rome  the  '  harlot  of  Babylon '  or  '  the  beast  of 
Rome,'  with  many  such  other,  as  I  have  heard  some 
say  ;  these  be  meeter  to  preach  at  Paul's  Wharf  than 
at  Paul's  Cross."  ^ 

The  care  that  was  taken  at  this  time  in  sermons  to 
the  people  to  decry  the  Pope's  authority,  as  well  as  the 
abuse  which  was  hurled  at  his  office,  is  in  reality 
ample  proof  of  the  popular  belief  in  his  supremacy, 
which  it  was  necessary  to  eradicate  from  the  hearts 
of  the  English  people.  Few,  probably,  would  have 
been  able  to  state  the  reason  for  their  belief ;  but  that 
the  spiritual  headship  was  fully  and  generally  accepted 
as  a  fact  is,  in  view  of  the  works  of  the  period,  not  open 
to  question.  Had  there  been  disbelief,  or  even  doubt, 
as  to  the  matter,  some  evidence  of  this  would  be  forth- 
coming in  the  years  that  preceded  the  final  overthrow 
of  Papal  jurisdiction  in  England. 

Nor  are  direct  declarations  of  the  faith  of  the 
English  Church  wanting.  To  the  evidence  already 
adduced,  a  sermon  preached  by  Bishop  Longland  in 
1527,  before  the  archbishops  and  bishops  of  England 
in  synod  at  Westminster,  may  be  added.  The  dis- 
course is  directed  against  the  errors  of  Luther  and 
the  social  evils  to  which  his  teaching  had  led  in  Ger- 
many. The  English  bishops.  Bishop  Longland  de- 
clares, are  determined  to  do  all  in  their  power  to 
preserve  the  English  Church  from  this  evil  teaching, 
and  he  exhorts  all  to  pray  that  God  will  not  allow 
the  universal  and  chief  Church — the  Roman  Church 
— to  be  further  afflicted,  that  He  will  restore  liberty 
to  the  most  Holy  Father  and  high-priest  now  impiously 

^  Simon  Matthew,  Sermon  made  in  the  Cathedrall  Church  of  Say nt- Pauley 
2.-]  June  1535  (Berthelet,  1535). 


94        THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

imprisoned,  and  in  a  lamentable  state ;  that  He  Himself 
will  protect  the  Church's  freedom  threatened  by  a 
multitude  of  evil  men,  and  through  the  pious  prayers 
of  His  people  will  free  it  and  restore  its  most  Holy 
Father.  Just  as  the  early  Christians  prayed  when  Peter 
was  in  prison,  so  ought  all  to  pray  in  these  days  of 
affliction.  "  Shall  we  not,"  he  cries,  "  mourn  for  the 
evil  life  of  the  chief  Church  (of  Christendom)?  Shall 
we  not  beseech  God  for  the  liberation  of  the  primate 
and  chief  ruler  of  the  Church  ?  Let  us  pray  then  ;  let 
us  pray  that  through  our  prayers  we  may  be  heard. 
Let  us  implore  freedom  for  our  mother,  the  Catholic 
Church,  and  the  liberty,  so  necessary  for  the  Christian 
religion,  of  our  chief  Father  on  earth — the  Pope."  i 

Again,  Dr.  John  Clark,  the  English  ambassador  in 
Rome,  when  presenting  Henry's  book  against  Luther  to 
Leo  X.  in  public  consistory,  said  that  the  English  king 
had  taken  up  the  defence  of  the  Church  because  in 
attacking  the  Pope  the  German  reformer  had  tried  to 
subvert  the  order  established  by  God  Himself.  In 
the  Babylonian  Captivity  of  the  Church  he  had  given 
to  the  world  a  book  "  most  pernicious  to  mankind," 
and  before  presenting  Henry's  reply,  he  begged  to  be 
allowed  to  protest  "  the  devotion  and  veneration  of 
the  king  towards  the  Pope  and  his  most  Holy  See." 
Luther  had  declared  war  "  not  only  against  your 
Hohness  but  also  against  your  office;  against  the  eccle- 
siastical hierarchy,  against  this  See,  and  against  that 
Rock  established  by  God  Himself."  England,  the 
speaker  continued,  "  has  never  been  behind  other 
nations  in  the  worship  of  God  and  the  Christian  faith, 
and    in   obedience   to   the    Roman    Church."       Hence 

1  Joannis  Longlondi  IVes  condones  (R.  Pynson),  f.  45. 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  POPE  95 

*^  no  nation "  detests  more  cordially  "  this  monster 
(Luther)  and  the  heresies  broached  by  him."  For  he 
has  declared  war  "  not  only  against  your  Holiness  but 
against  your  office  ;  against  the  ecclesiastical  hierarchy, 
against  this  See,  that  Rock  established  by  God  Him- 
self." ^ 

Whilst  the  evidence  goes  to  show  the  full  accept- 
ance by  the  English  people  of  the  Pope's  spiritual 
headship  of  the  Church,  it  is  also  true  that  the  system 
elaborated  by  the  ecclesiastical  lawyers  in  the  later 
Middle  Ages,  dealing,  as  it  did,  so  largely  with  temporal 
matters,  property,  and  the  rights  attaching  thereto, 
opened  the  door  to  causes  of  disagreement  between 
Rome  and  England,  and  at  times  open  complaints  and 
criticism  of  the  exercise  of  Roman  authority  in  England 
made  themselves  heard.  This  is  true  of  all  periods  of 
English  history.  Since  these  disagreements  are  ob- 
viously altogether  connected  with  the  question,  not  of 
spirituals,  but  of  temporals,  they  would  not  require  any 
more  special  notice  but  for  the  misunderstandings  they 
have  given  rise  to  in  regard  to  the  general  attitude  of 
men's  minds  to  Rome  and  Papal  authority  on  the  eve 
of  the  Reformation.  It  is  easy  to  find  evidence  of  this. 
As  early  as  15 17,  a  work  bearing  on  this  question  ap- 
peared in  England.  It  was  a  translation  of  several 
tracts  that  had  been  published  abroad  on  the  de- 
bated matter  of  Constantine's  donation  to  the  Pope, 
and  it  was  issued  from  the  press  of  Thomas  Godfray 
in  a  well-printed  folio.  After  a  translation  of  the 
Latin  version  of  a  Greek  manuscript  of  Constan- 
tine's gift,  which  had  been  found  in  the  Papal  library 

^  Assertion  of  the  Seven  Sacraments  against  Luther  (translation  by  J   W 
1687),  f.  a.  i. 


96         THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

by  Bartolomeo  Pincern,  and  published  by  order  of 
Pope  Julius  II.,  there  is  given  in  this  volume  the 
critical  examination  of  this  gift  by  Laurence  Valla, 
the  opinion  of  Nicholas  of  Cusa,  written  for  the  Coun- 
cil of  Basle,  and  that  of  St.  Antoninus,  Archbishop  of 
Florence.  The  interest  of  the  volume  for  the  present 
purpose  chiefly  consists  in  the  fact  of  the  publica- 
tion in  England  at  this  date  of  the  views  expressed 
by  Laurence  Valla.  Valla  had  been  a  canon  of  the 
Lateran  and  an  eminent  scholar,  who  was  employed 
by  Pope  Nicholas  V.  to  translate  Thucydides  and 
Herodotus.  His  outspoken  words  got  him  into  diffi- 
culties with  the  Roman  curia,  and  obliged  him  to 
retire  to  Naples,  where  he  died  in  1457.  The  tract 
was  edited  with  a  preface  by  the  leader  of  the  reform 
party  in  Germany,  Ulrich  von  Hutten.  In  this  intro- 
duction von  Hutten  says  that  by  the  publication  of 
Pincern's  translation  of  the  supposed  donation  of 
Constantine  Julius  II.  had  "provoked  and  stirred  up 
men  to  war  and  battle,"  and  further,  he  blames  the 
Pontiff  because  he  would  not  permit  Valla's  work 
against  the  genuineness  of  the  gift  to  be  published. 
With  the  accession  of  Leo  X.  von  Hutten  looked, 
he  declares,  for  better  days,  since  "  by  striking  as  it 
were  a  cymbal  of  peace  the  Pope  has  raised  up  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  all  Christian  people."  Before 
this  time  the  truth  could  not  be  spoken.  Popes 
looked  "  to  pluck  the  riches  and  goods  of  all  men 
to  their  own  selves,"  with  the  result  that  "  on  the 
other  side  they  take  away  from  themselves  all  that 
belongs  to  the  succession  of  St.  Peter." 

Valla,  of  course,  condemns  the  supposed  donation 
of  Constantine  to  the   Pope  as  spurious,   and  declares 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  97 

against  the  temporal  claims  the  See  of  Rome  had 
founded  upon  it.  He  strongly  objects  to  the  "  tem- 
poral as  well  as  the  spiritual  sword  "  being  in  the  hands 
of  the  successors  of  St.  Peter.  "  They  say,"  he  writes, 
"  that  the  city  of  Rome  is  theirs,  that  the  kingdom  of 
Naples  is  their  own  property  :  that  all  Italy,  France,  and 
Spain,  Germany,  England,  and  all  the  west  part  of  the 
world  belongs  to  them.  For  all  these  nations  and 
countries  (they  say)  are  contained  in  the  instrument 
and  writ  of  the  donation  or  grant." 

The  whole  tract  is  an  attack  upon  the  temporal 
sovereignty  of  the  head  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  it 
was  indeed  a  bold  thing  for  Ulrich  von  Hutten  to  pub- 
lish it  and  dedicate  it  to  Pope  Leo  X.  For  the  present 
purpose  it  is  chiefly  important  to  find  all  this  set  out  in 
an  English  dress,  whilst  so  far  and  for  a  long  while 
after,  the  English  people  were  loyal  and  true  to  the 
spiritual  headship  of  the  Pope,  and  were  second  to  no 
other  nation  in  their  attachment  to  him.  At  that  time 
recent  events,  including  the  wars  of  Julius  II.,  must 
certainly  have  caused  men  to  reflect  upon  the  temporal 
aspect  of  the  Papacy  ;  and  hearts  more  loyal  to  the 
successor  of  St.  Peter  than  was  that  of  Von  Hutten 
would  probably  have  joined  fervently  in  the  conclud- 
ing words  of  his  preface  as  it  appeared  in  English. 
"  Would  to  God  I  might  (for  there  is  nothing  I  do  long 
for  more)  once  see  it  brought  to  pass  that  the  Pope 
were  only  the  Vicar  of  Christ  and  not  also  the  Vicar  of 
the  Emperor,  and  that  this  horrible  saying  may  no 
longer  be  heard :  '  the  Church  fighteth  and  warreth 
against  the  Perugians,  the  Church  fighteth  against  the 
people  of  Bologna.'  It  is  not  the  Church  that  fights 
and  wars  against  Christian   men  ;    it  is  the  Pope  that 

G 


98         THE   EVE   OF  THE   REFORMATION 

does  so.  The  Church  fights  against  wicked  spirits  in 
the  regions  of  the  air.  Then  shall  the  Pope  be  called, 
and  in  very  deed  be,  a  Holy  Father,  the  Father  of  all 
men,  the  Father  of  the  Church.  Then  shall  he  not 
raise  and  stir  up  wars  and  battles  among  Christian  men, 
but  he  shall  allay  and  stop  the  wars  which  have  been 
stirred  up  by  others,  by  his  apostolic  censure  and  papal 
majesty."  ^ 

Evidence  of  what,  above,  has  been  called  the  pro- 
bable searching  of  men's  minds  as  to  the  action  of 
the  Popes  in  temporal  matters,  may  be  seen  in  a  book 
called  a  Dyalogiie  between  a  knight  and  a  clerk,  concerning 
the  power  spiritual  and  temporal?  In  reply  to  the  com- 
plaint of  the  clerk  that  in  the  evil  days  in  which  their 
lot  had  fallen  "  the  statutes  and  ordinances  of  bishops 
of  Rome  and  the  decrees  of  holy  fathers  "  were  disre- 
garded, the  knight  exposes  a  layman's  view  of  the 
matter.  "  Whether  they  ordain,"  he  says,  ''  or  have 
ordained  in  times  past  of  the  temporality,  may  well  be 
law  to  you,  but  not  to  us.  No  man  has  power  to 
ordain  statutes  of  things  over  which  he  has  no  lordship, 
as  the  king  of  France  may  ordain  no  statute  (binding) 
on  the  emperor  nor  the  emperor  on  the  king  of  England. 
And  just  as  princes  of  this  world  may  ordain  no  statutes 
for  your  spirituality  over  which  they  have  no  power  ; 
no  more  may  you  ordain  statutes  of  their  temporalities 
over  which  you  have  neither  power  nor  authority. 
Therefore,  whatever  you  ordain  about  temporal  things, 
over  which  you  have  received  no  power  from  God,  is 
vain  (and  void).     And  therefore  but  lately,   I   laughed 

^  A  treatise  of  the  donation  or  gift  and  endoiv/nent  of  possessions  given  (by 
Constantine)  wit/i  thejudgenietit  of  co  tain  great  men,  1517,  Thomas  Godfray, 
^  London,  Thomas  Berthelet. 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  99 

well  fast,  when  I  heard  that  Boniface  VIII.  had  made 
a  new  statute  that  he  himself  should  be  above  all 
secular  lords,  princes,  kings,  and  emperors,  and  above 
all  kingdoms,  and  make  laws  about  all  things  :  and  that 
he  only  needed  to  write,  for  all  things  shall  be  his  when 
he  has  so  written  :  and  thus  all  things  will  be  yours. 
If  he  wishes  to  have  my  castle,  my  town,  my  field, 
my  money,  or  any  other  such  thing  he  needed,  nothing 
but  to  will  it,  and  write  it,  and  make  a  decree,  and 
wot  that  it  be  done,  (for)  to  all  such  things  he  has  a 
right." 

The  clerk  does  not,  however,  at  once  give  up  the 
position.  You  mean,  he  says  in  substance,  that  in 
your  opinion  the  Pope  has  no  power  over  your  pro- 
perty and  goods.  "  Though  we  should  prove  this  by 
our  law  and  by  written  decrees,  you  account  them  for 
nought.  For  you  hold  that  Peter  had  no  lordship  or 
power  over  temporals,  but  by  such  law  written.  But 
if  you  will  be  a  true  Christian  man  and  of  right  belief, 
you  will  not  deny  that  Christ  is  the  lord  of  all  things. 
To  Him  it  is  said  in  the  Psalter  book :  '  Ask  of  me,  and 
I  will  give  you  nations  for  thine  heritage,  and  all  the 
world  about  for  thy  possession '  (Ps.  ii.).  These  are 
God's  words,  and  no  one  doubts  that  He  can  ordain  for 
the  whole  earth." 

Nobody  denies  God's  lordship  over  the  earth, 
replied  the  knight,  "but  if  be  proved  by  Holy  Writ 
that  the  Pope  is  lord  of  all  temporalities,  then  kings 
and  princes  must  needs  be  subject  to  the  Pope  in 
temporals  as  in  spirituals."  So  they  are,  in  effect, 
answered  the  clerk.  Peter  was  made  "Christ's  full 
Vicar,"  and  as  such  he  can  do  what  his  lord  can, 
*'  especially  when  he  is  Vicar  with  full  power,  without 


loo      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

any  withdrawing  of  power,  and  he  thus  can  direct  all 
Christian  nations  in  temporal  matters."  But,  said  the 
knight,  "Christ's  life  pHinly  shows  that  He  made  no 
claim  whatever  to  temporal  power.  Also  in  Peter's 
commission  He  gave  him  not  the  keys  of  the  kingdom 
of  the  earth,  but  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
It  is  also  evident  that  the  bishops  of  the  Hebrews  were 
subjects  of  the  kings,  and  kings  deposed  bishops  ;  but," 
he  adds,  fearing  to  go  too  far,  "  God  forbid  that  they 
should  do  so  now."  Then  he  goes  on  to  quote  St.  Paul 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  to  prove  that  St.  Peter 
was  Christ's  Vicar  only  in  "  the  godly  kingdom  of 
souls,  and  that  though  some  temporal  things  may  be 
managed  by  bishops,  yet  nevertheless  it  is  plain  and 
evident  that  bishops  should  not  be  occupied  in  the 
government  of  the  might  and  lordship  of  the  world." 
And  indeed,  he  urges,  "  Christ  neither  made  St.  Peter  a 
knight  nor  a  crowned  king,  but  ordained  him  a  priest 
and  bishop."  If  the  contention  that  "the  Pope  is  the 
Vicar  of  God  in  temporal  matter  be  correct,"  then  of 
necessity  you  must  also  grant  that  "  the  Pope  may  take 
from  you  and  from  us  all  the  goods  that  you  and  we 
have,  and  give  them  all  to  whichever  of  his  nephews  or 
cousins  he  wills  and  give  no  reason  why  :  and  also  that 
he  may  take  away  from  princes  and  kings  principalities 
and  kingdoms,  at  his  own  will,  and  give  them  where  he 
likes."  ^ 

This  statement  by  the  layman  of  the  advanced 
clerical  view  is  somewhat  bald,  and  is  probably  inten- 
tionally exaggerated  ;  but  that  it  could  be  published 
even  as  a  caricature  of  the  position  taken  up  by  some 
ecclesiastics,   shows  that   at  this   time  some  went  very 

'  A  dyalogtie,  ut  sup.,  ff.  3-7. 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  loi 

far  indeed  in  their  claims.  It  is  all  the  more  remark- 
able that  the  argument  is  seriously  put  forward  in 
a  tract,  the  author  of  which  is  evidently  a  Catholic 
at  heart,  and  one  who  fully  admits  the  supreme  juris- 
diction of  the  Pope  in  all  matters  spiritual.  Of  course, 
when  the  rejection  of  Papal  jurisdiction  became  im- 
minent, there  were  found  many  who  by  sermons  and 
books  endeavoured  to  eradicate  the  old  teaching  from 
the  people's  hearts,  and  then  it  was  that  what  was  called, 
"  the  pretensions "  of  the  successors  of  St.  Peter  in 
matters  temporal  were  held  up  to  serve  as  a  convenient 
means  of  striking  at  the  spiritual  prerogatives.  As  a 
sample,  a  small  book  named  a  Mitstre  of  scismatyke 
bysshops  of  Rome  may  be  taken.  It  was  printed  in 
1534,  and  its  title  is  sufficient  to  indicate  its  tone. 
The  author,  one  John  Roberts,  rakes  together  a  good 
many  unsavoury  tales  about  the  lives  of  individual 
Popes,  and  in  particular  he  translates  the  life  of 
Gregory  VII.  to  enforce  his  moral.  In  his  preface 
he  says,  "There  is  a  fond,  foolish,  fantasy  raging  in 
many  men's  heads  nowadays,  and  it  is  this  :  the 
Popes,  say  they,  cannot  err.  This  fantastical  blind- 
ness was  never  taught  by  any  man  of  literature,  but 
by  some  peckish  pedler  or  clouting  collier  :  it  is  so 
gross  in  itself."  And  I  "  warn,  advise,  beseech,  and 
adjure  all  my  well-beloved  countrymen  in  England 
that  men  do  not  permit  themselves  to  be  blinded  with 
affection,  with  hypocrisy,  or  with  superstition.  What 
have  we  got  from  Rome  but  pulling,  polling,  picking, 
robbing,  stealing,  oppression,  blood-shedding,  and 
tyranny  daily  exercised  upon  us  by  him  and  his."  ^ 

^  f.  A.  ii. ;  c.  i.  ;  c.  iiij.     The  author  recommends  those  who  would  under- 
stand the  Pope's  power  to  "  resort  unto  The  glasse  oftnith  or  to  the  book  named 


I02       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

Again,  as  another  example  of  how  the  mind  of  the 
people  was  stirred  up,  we  may  take  a  few  sentences 
from  A  Worke  entytlcd  of  the  olde  God  and  the  new.  This 
tract  is  one  of  the  most  scurrilous  of  the  German  pro- 
ductions of  the  period.  It  was  published  in  English 
by  Myles  Coverdale,  and  is  on  the  list  of  books  pro- 
hibited by  the  king  in  1534.  After  a  tirade  against 
the  Pope,  whom  he  delights  in  calling  '<  anti-Christ," 
the  author  declares  that  the  Popes  are  the  cause  of 
many  of  the  evils  from  which  people  were  suffering 
at  that  time.  In  old  days,  he  says,  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  was  nothing  more  "  than  a  pastor  or  herds- 
man," and  adds  :  "  Now  he  who  has  been  at  Rome 
in  the  time  of  Pope  Alexander  VI.  or  of  Pope  Julius  II., 
he  need  not  read  many  histories.  I  put  it  to  his  judg- 
ment whether  any  of  the  Pagans  or  of  the  Turks  ever 
did  lead  such  a  life  as  did  these."  ^ 

The  same  temper  of  mind  appears  in  the  preface 

the  Deter?ninatwns  of  the  universities.^'  The  book  named  here  A  glasse  of 
truth  is  written  in  favour  of  the  divorce.  "  Some  lawyers,"  the  author  says, 
"attribute  too  much  to  the  Pope — at  length  there  shall  be  no  law,  but  only 
his  will."  The  work  was  published  by  Berthelet  anonymously,  but  Richard 
Croke,  in  a  letter  written  at  this  period  (Ellis,  Historical  Letters,  3rd  series, 
ii.  195),  says  that  the  book  was  written  by  King  Henry  himself.  It  was 
generally  said  that  Henry  had  written  a  defence  of  his  divorce  ;  but  Strype 
did  not  think  it  was  more  than  a  State  paper.  Croke  (p.  198)  says  that 
people  at  Oxford,  "  Mr.  John  Roper  and  others,"  did  not  believe  that  the 
king  was  really  the  author.  He  says  that  the  tract  has  done  more  than 
anything  else  to  get  people  to  take  the  king's  side. 

^  Of  the  olde  God  and  the  nezv,  B.  i.  As  another  sample  of  what  was  at 
this  time  said  about  the  Popes,  we  may  take  the  following  :  Rome,  says 
the  author,  "  was  by  Justinian  restored  from  ruin  and  decay,  from  whence  also 
came  the  riches  of  the  Church.  At  the  coming  of  these  riches,  forthwith  the 
book  of  the  gospel  was  shut  up,  and  the  Bishops  of  Rome,  instead  of  evan- 
gelical poverty,  began  to  put  forth  their  heads  garnished  with  three  crowns." 
This  is  taken  from  the  preface  of  Hartnian  Dulechin,  who  claims  to  have 
"  taught  the  book  to  speak  Latin."  It  was  originally  printed  and  published 
in  German.     The  English  version  is  a  translation  of  the  Latin. 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  POPE  103 

of  a  book  called  The  Defence  of  Peace,  translated  into 
English  by  William  Marshall  and  printed  in  1535. 
The  work  itself  was  written  by  Marsilius  of  Padua 
about  1323,  but  the  preface  is  dated  1522.  The 
whole  tone  is  distinctly  anti-clerical,  but  the  main 
line  of  attack  is  developed  from  the  side  of  the  tem- 
poralities possessed  by  churchmen.  Even  churchmen, 
he  says,  look  mainly  to  the  increase  of  their  worldly 
goods.  "  Riches  give  honour,  riches  give  benefices, 
riches  give  power  and  authority,  riches  cause  men  to 
be  regarded  and  greatly  esteemed."  Especially  is  the 
author  of  the  preface  severe  upon  the  temporal 
position  which  the  Pope  claims  as  inalienably  united 
with  his  office  as  head  of  the  Church.  Benedict 
XII.,  he  says,  acted  in  many  places  as  if  he  were 
all  powerful,  appointing  rulers  and  officers  in  cities 
within  the  emperor's  dominions,  saying,  "  that  all 
power  and  rule  and  empire  was  his  own,  for  as  much 
as  whosoever  is  the  successor  of  Peter  on  earth  is 
the  only  Vicar  or  deputy  of  Jesus  Christ  the  King  of 
Heaven."  ^ 

In  the  body  of  the  book  itself  the  same  views  are 
expressed.  The  authority  of  the  primacy  is  said  to 
be  "not  immediately  from  God,  but  by  the  will  and 
mind  of  man,  just  as  other  offices  of  a  commonwealth 
are,"  and  that  the  real  meaning  and  extent  of  the 
claims  put  forward  by  the  Pope  can  be  seen  easily^ 
They  are  temporal,  not  spiritual.  "This  is  the  mean- 
ing of  this  title  among  the  Bishops  of  Rome,  that 
as  Christ  had  the  fulness  of  power  and  jurisdiction 
over  all  kings,  princes,  commonwealth,  companies,  or 

^   The  Defence  of  Peace,  written  in  Latin  more  than  200  years  ago,  and  set 
forth  in  the  English  tongtte  by  IVyllyam  Marshall.     R.  Wyer,  1535,  folio. 


I04      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

fellowships,  and  all  singular  persons,  so  in  like  manner 
they  who  call  themselves  the  Vicars  of  Christ  and 
Peter,  have  also  the  same  fulness  of  enactive  juris- 
diction, determined  by  no  law  of  man,"  and  thus 
it  is  that  "the  Bishops  of  Rome,  with  their  desire 
for  dominion,  have  been  the  cause  of  discords  and 
wars." ' 

Lancelot  Ridley,  in  his  Exposition  of  the  Epistle  of 
fiide,  published  in  1538  after  the  breach  with  Rome, 
takes  the  same  line.  The  Pope  has  no  right  to  have 
"  exempted  himself "  and  ''  other  spiritual  men  from 
the  obedience  to  the  civil  rulers  and  powers."  Some, 
indeed,  he  says,  "set  up  the  usurped  power  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  above  kings,  princes,  and  emperors, 
and  that  by  the  ordinance  of  God,  as  if  God  and  His 
Holy  Scripture  did  give  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome  a 
secular  power  above  kings,  princes,  and  emperors  here 
in  this  world.  It  is  evident  by  Scripture  that  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  has  no  other  power  but  at  the  pleasure 
of  princes,  than  in  the  ministration  of  the  Word  of 
God  in  preaching  God's  Word  purely  and  sincerely, 
to  reprove  by  it  evil  men,  and  to  do  such  things  as 
become  a  preacher,  a  bishop,  a  minister  of  God's 
Word  to  do.  Other  power  Scripture  does  not  attribute 
to  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  nor  suffer  him  to  use.  Scrip- 
ture wills  him  to  be  a  bishop,  and  to  do  the  office  of 
a  bishop,  and  not  to  play  the  prince,  the  king,  the 
emperor,  the  lord,  and  so  forth." "  It  is  important 
to  note  in  this  passage  that  the  writer  was  a  reformer, 

1  The  Defence  of  Peace,  f.  42.  The  well-known  anti-papal  opinions  of 
Marsilius  of  Padua  are,  of  course,  of  no  interest  in  themselves,  but  their  publica- 
tion at  this  time  in  English  shows  the  methods  by  which  it  was  hoped  to 
undermine  the  Papal  authority  in  the  country. 

2  Exposition,  &c.,  ut  supra,  f.  i. 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  105 

and  that  he  was  expressing  his  views  after  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Holy  See  had  been  rejected  by  the  king 
and  his  advisers.  The  ground  of  the  rejection,  accord- 
ing to  him — or  at  any  rate  the  reason  which  it  was 
desired  to  emphasise  before  the  pubhc — would  appear 
to  be  the  temporal  authority  which  the  Popes  had 
been  exercising. 

In  the  same  year,  1538,  Richard  Morysine  pub- 
lished a  translation  of  a  letter  addressed  by  John 
Sturmius,  the  Lutheran,  to  the  cardinals  appointed  by 
Pope  Paul  in.  to  consider  what  could  be  done  to 
stem  the  evils  which  threatened  the  Church.  As  the 
work  of  this  Papal  commission  was  then  directly 
put  before  the  English  people,  some  account  of  it  is 
almost  necessary.  The  commission  consisted  of  four 
cardinals,  two  archbishops,  one  bishop,  the  abbot  of 
San  Giorgio,  Venice,  and  the  master  of  the  Sacred 
Palace,  and  its  report  was  supposed  to  have  been 
drafted  by  Cardinal  Caraffa,  afterwards  Pope  Paul  IV. 
The  document  thanks  God  who  has  inspired  the  Pope 
"  to  put  forth  his  hand  to  support  the  ruins  of  the 
tottering  and  almost  fallen  Church  of  Christ,  and  to 
raise  it  again  to  its  pristine  height."  As  a  beginning, 
the  Holy  Father  has  commanded  them  to  lay  bare  to 
him  "  those  most  grave  abuses,  that  is  diseases,  by 
which  the  Church  of  God,  and  this  Roman  curia 
especially,  is  afflicted,"  and  which  has  brought  about 
the  state  of  ruin  now  so  evident.  The  initial  cause 
of  all  has  been,  they  declare,  that  the  Popes  have 
surrounded  themselves  with  people  who  only  told  them 
what  they  thought  would  be  pleasant  to  them,  and  who 
had  not  the  honesty  and  loyalty  to  speak  the  truth. 
This  adulation  had  deceived  the  Roman  Pontiffs  about 


io6       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

many  things.  "  To  get  the  truth  to  their  ears  was 
always  most  difficult.  Teachers  sprung  up  who  were 
ready  to  declare  that  the  Pope  was  the  master  of  all 
benefices,  and  as  master  might  by  right  sell  them  as 
his  own."  As  a  consequence,  it  was  taught  that  the 
Pope  could  not  be  guilty  of  simony,  and  that  the  will 
of  the  Pope  was  the  highest  law,  and  could  override 
all  law.  "  From  this  source.  Holy  Father,"  they  con- 
tinue, "as  from  the  Trojan  horse,  so  many  abuses 
and  most  grievous  diseases  have  grown  up  in  the 
Church  of  God."  Even  pagans,  they  say,  scoff  at 
the  state  of  the  Christian  Church  as  it  is  at  present, 
and  they,  the  commissioners,  beg  the  Pope  not  to 
delay  in  immediately  taking  in  hand  the  correction 
of  the  manifest  abuses  which  afiflict  and  disgrace 
the  Church  of  Christ.  "  Begin  the  cure,"  'they 
say,  "  whence  sprung  the  disease.  Follow  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Apostle  St.  Paul :  '  be  a  dispenser,  not  a 
lord.'  " 

They  then  proceed  to  note  the  abuses  which  to 
them  are  most  apparent,  and  to  suggest  remedies. 
We  are  not  concerned  with  these  further  than  to 
point  out  that,  as  a  preliminary,  they  state  that  the 
true  principle  of  government  is,  that  what  is  the  law 
must  be  kept,  and  that  dispensations  should  be  granted 
only  on  the  most  urgent  causes,  since  nothing  brings 
government  to  such  bad  repute  as  the  continual  exer- 
cise of  the  power  of  dispensation.  Further,  they  note 
that  it  is  certainly  not  lawful  for  the  Vicar  of  Christ 
to  make  any  profit  {lucrum)  by  the  dispensations  he 
is  obliged  to  give. 

Sturmius,  in  his  preface,  says  he  had  hopes  of  better 
things,  now   that   there   was   a    Pope   ready  to    listen. 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  107 

"  It  is  a  rare  thing,  and  much  more  than  man  could 
hope  for,  that  there  should  come  a  Bishop  of  Rome 
who  would  require  his  prelates  upon  their  oath  to  open 
the  truth,  to  show  abuses,  and  to  seek  remedies  for 
them."  He  is  pleased  to  think  that  these  four  cardinals, 
Sadolet,  Paul  Caraffa,  Contarini,  and  Reginald  Pole  had 
allowed  fully  and  frankly  that  a  great  portion  of  the 
difficulty  had  come  from  the  unfortunate  attitude  of  the 
Popes  in  regard  to  worldly  affairs.  "You  acknowledge," 
he  says,  "  that  no  lordship  is  committed  to  the  Bishop 
of  Rome,  but  rather  a  certain  cure  by  which  he  may 
rule  things  in  the  church  according  to  good  order.  If 
you  admit  this  to  be  true  and  will  entirely  grant  us  this, 
a  great  part  of  our  {i.e.  Lutheran)  controversy  is  taken 
away  ;  granting  this  also,  that  we  did  not  dissent  from 
you  without  great  and  just  causes."  The  three  points 
the  cardinals  claimed  for  the  Pope,  it  may  be  noted, 
were  :  (i)  that  he  was  to  be  Bishop  of  Rome  ;  (2)  that 
he  was  to  be  universal  Bishop  ;  and  (3)  that  he  should 
be  allowed  temporal  sovereignty  over  certain  cities  in 
Italy.^  Again  we  find  the  same  view  put  before  the 
English  people  in  this  translation  :  the  chief  objection 

^  Johann  Sturmius,  Epistle  sent  to  the  cardinals  and  prelates  that  were 
appointed  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome  to  search  out  the  abuses  of  the  Church. 
Translated  by  Richard  Morysine.     Berthelet,  1538. 

A  later  copy  of  the  Conciliujn  de  eviendanda  Ecclesia,  printed  by 
Sturmius  with  his  letter  in  1538,  in  the  British  Museum,  formerly  belonged 
to  Cecil.  The  title-page  has  his  signature,  "Gulielmus  Cecilius,  1540,"  and 
there  are  marks  and  words  underlined,  and  some  few  observations  from  his 
pen  in  the  margin.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  what  struck  the  statesman 
as  a  youth  were  just  the  points  which  could  be  turned  against  the  temporal 
claims  of  the  Roman  See. 

The  special  evils  needing  correction  which  the  committee  of  cardinals 
note,  and  which  they  call  abuses,  are  collected  under  22  headings,  some  of 
which  are  the  following  : — 

(i)  Ordination  of  priests  without  cure  of  souls,  not  learned,  of  lower  order 
in  life,  and  too  young  and  of  doubtful  morals  :  They  suggest  that  each  diocese 


io8       THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

to  the  admission  of  Papal  prerogatives  was  the  "lord- 
ship" which  he  claimed  over  and  above  the  spiritual 
powers   he    exercised    as   successor   of    St.  Peter.     On 

should  have  a  magistrtim  to  see  that  candidates  are  properly  instructed— 
none  to  be  ordained  except  by  their  own  bishop. 

(2)  Benefices,  and  in  particular,  episcopal  sees,  are  given  to  people  with 
interest,  and  not  because  their  elevation  would  be  good  for  the  church. 
They  suggest  that  the  best  man  should  be  chosen,  and  residence  should  be 
insisted  on,  and  consequently  "  non  Italo  conferendum  est  beneficium  in 
Hispania  aut  in  Britannia  aut.ex  contra." 

(3)  Pensions  reserved  from  Benefices.  Though  the  Pope,  "who  is  the 
universal  dispenser  of  the  goods  of  the  church,"  may  reserve  a  part  for  a 
pious  use,  e.g.  for  the  poor,  &c.,  still  not  to  reserve  sufficient  for  the  proper 
purpose  of  the  beneficiary,  and  still  more  to  give  a  pension  out  of  a  benefice 
to  one  rich  enough  without,  is  wrong. 

(4)  Change  of  benefices  for  the  sake  of  gain,  and  handing  on  benefices  by 
arrangement  or  always  assigning  episcopal  sees  to  coadjutors,  is  the  cause  of 
outcry  against  the  clergy,  and  is  in  reality  making  private  property  out  of  what 
is  public. 

(5)  Permission  to  clergy  to  hold  more  than  one  benefice. 

(6)  Cardinals  being  allowed  to  hold  sees.  They  ought  to  be  counsellors 
to  the  Pope  in  Rome,  and  when  holding  sees  they  are  more  or  less  dependent 
on  the  will  of  the  kings,  and  so  cannot  give  independent  advice  and  speak 
their  minds. 

(7)  Absence  of  bishops  from  their  sees. 

(8)  Such  religious  houses  as  needed  correction  should  be  forbidden  to 
profess  members,  and  when  they  die  out,  their  places  should  be  taken  by 
fervent  religious.  Confessors  for  convents  must  be  approved  by  the  ordinaries 
of  the  place. 

(9)  The  use  of  the  keys  ought  never,  under  any  pretext,  to  be  granted  for 
money. 

(10)  Questors  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  St.  Anthony,  &c.,  who  foster  superstition 
among  the  poor  people,  should  be  prohibited. 

(11)  Confessional  privileges  and  use  of  portable  altars  to  be  very  rarely 
allowed. 

(12)  No  indulgences  to  be  granted  except  once  a  year,  and  in  the  great 

cities  only. 

Finally  they  say  of  Rome  :  "  Hkc  Romana  civitas  et  ecclesia  mater 
est  et  magistra  aliarum  ecclesiarum,"  and  hence  it  should  be  a  model  to  all. 
Foreigners,  however,  who  come  to  St.  Peter's  find  that  priests  "  sordidi, 
ignari,  induti  paramentis  et  vestibus  quibus  nee  in  sordidis  cedibus  honeste 
uti  possent,  missas  celebrant." 

Cardinal  Sadolet,  on  receiving  a  copy  of  Sturmius's  letter,  replied  in  kindly 
terms.  He  had,  he  declared,  a  high  opinion  of  "  Sturmius,  Melanchthon,  and 
Bucer,  looking  on  them  as  most  learned  men,  kindly  disposed,  and  cordially 
friendly  to  him.     He  looked  upon  it  as  the  peculiar  characteristic  of  Luther 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  109 

this  point  we  find  preachers  and  writers  of  the  period 
insisting  most  clearly  and  definitely.  Some,  of  course, 
attack  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  directly,  but  most 
commonly  such  attacks  are  flavoured  and  served  up 
for  general  consumption  by  a  supply  of  abuse  of  the 
temporal  assumptions  and  the  wordly  show  of  the 
Popes.  This  appealed  to  the  popular  mind,  and  to 
the  growing  sense  of  national  aims  and  objects,  and 
the  real  issue  of  the  spiritual  headship  was  obscured 
by  the  plea  of  national  sentiment  and  safeguards. 

To  take  one  more  example  :  Bishop  Tunstall,  on 
Palm  Sunday,  1539,  preached  before  the  king  and 
court.  His  object  was  to  defend  the  rejection  of  the 
Papal  supremacy  and  jurisdiction.  He  declaimed 
against  the  notion  that  the  Popes  were  to  be  con- 
sidered as  free  from  subjection  to  worldly  powers, 
maintaining  that  in  this  they  were  like  all  other  men. 
"  The  Popes,"  he  says,  "  exalt  their  seat  above  the 
stars  of  God,  and  ascend  above  the  clouds,  and  will 
be  like  to  God  Almighty.  .  .  .  The  Bishop  of  Rome 
offers  his  feet  to  be  kissed,  shod  with  his  shoes  on. 
This  I  saw  myself,  being  present  thirty-four  years  ago, 
when  Julius,  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  stood  on  his  feet 
and  one  of  his  chamberlains  held  up  his  skirt  because 
it  stood  not,  as  he  thought,  with  his   dignity  that   he 

to  try  and  overwhelm  all  his  opponents  with  shouts  and  attacks."  He  speaks 
of  the  great  piety  of  Pope  Clement  from  personal  knowledge.  His  wars  were, 
he  said,  rather  the  work  of  his  adversaries  than  his  own  (De  coiisilio,  ed. 
J.  G.  Schelhorn,  1748,  p.  91). 

He  also,  in  1539,  penned  the  De  Christiana  Ecdesia  (in  Specilegizim 
Romaiitcm,  ii.  p.  loi  seijq.),  sending  it  to  Cardinal  Salicati,  and  asking  him  to 
pass  it  on  to  Cardinal  Contarini.  It  was  the  outcome  of  conversations  about 
the  troubles  of  the  Church,  and  the  result  of  the  movement  was  the  Council 
of  Trent,  to  restore,  as  Sadolet  says,  ecclesiastical  discipline  "  qute  nunc  tota 
p:ene  nobis  e  manibus  elapsa  est." 


Jio      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

should  do  it  himself,  that  his  shoes  might  appear, 
whilst  a  nobleman  of  great  age  prostrated  himself  upon 
the  ground  and  kissed  his  shoes."  ^ 

To  us,  to-day,  much  that  was  written  and  spoken 
at  this  time  will  appear,  like  many  of  the  above  passages, 
foolish  and  exaggerated  ;  but  the  language  served  its 
purpose,  and  contributed  more  than  anything  else  to 
lower  the  Popes  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  and  to 
justify  in  their  minds  the  overthrow  of  the  ecclesiastical 
system  which  had  postulated  the  Pope  as  the  universal 
Father  of  the  Christian  Church.  Each  Sunday,  in 
every  parish  church  throughout  the  country,  they  had 
been  invited  in  the  bidding  prayer,  as  their  fathers  had 
been  for  generations,  to  remember  their  duty  of  pray-r 
ing  for  their  common  Father,  the  Pope.  When  the 
Pope's  authority  was  finally  rejected  by  the  English 
king  and  his  advisers,  it  was  necessary  to  justify  this 
serious  breach  with  the  past  religious  practice,  and  the 
works  of  the  period  prove  beyond  doubt  that  this  was 
done  in  the  popular  mind  by  turning  men's  thoughts 
to  the  temporal  aspect  of  the  Papacy,  and  making  them 
think  that  it  was  for  the  national  profit  and  honour  that 
this  foreign  yoke  should  be  cast  off.  Whilst  this  is 
clear,  it  is  also  equally  clear  in  the  works  of  the  time 
that  the  purely  religious  aspect  of  the  question  was  as 
far  as  possible  relegated  to  a  secondary  place  in  the 
discussions.  This  was  perhaps  not  unnatural,  as  the 
duty  of  defending  the  rejection  of  the  Papal  supremacy 
can  hardly  have  been  very  tasteful  to  those  who  were 
forced  by  the  strong  arm  of  the  State  to  justify  it  before 
the  people.  As  late  as  1540  we  are  told  by  a  con- 
temporary writer  that  the  spirituality  under  the  bishops 

^  Sermon  on  Palm  Sunday,  Berthelet,  1539. 


ENGLAND  AND  THE   POPE  iii 

*"  favour  as  much  as  they  dare  the  Bishop  of  Rome's 
laws  and  his  ways."  ^ 

Even  the  actual  meaning  attached  to  the  formal 
acknowledgment  of  the  king's  Headship  by  the  clergy 
was  sufBciently  ambiguous  to  be  understood,  by  some 
at  least,  as  aimed  merely  at  the  temporal  jurisdiction 
of  the  Roman  curia.  It  is  true  it  is  usually  under- 
stood that  Convocation  by  its  act,  acknowledging 
Henry  as  sole  supreme  Head  of  the  Church  of 
England,  gave  him  absolute  spiritual  jurisdiction. 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  intention  of  the  king 
in  requiring  the  acknowledgment  from  the  clergy,  it 
seems  absolutely  certain  that  the  ruling  powers  in  the 
Church  considered  that  by  their  grant  there  was  no 
derogation  of  the  Pope's  spiritual  jurisdiction. 

A  comparison  of  the  clauses  required  by  Henry 
with  those  actually  granted  by  Convocation  makes  it 
evident  that  any  admission  that  the  crown  had  any 
cure  of  souls,  that  is,  spiritual  jurisdiction,  was  specifi- 
cally guarded  against.  In  place  of  the  clause  contain- 
ing the  words,  "  cure  of  souls  committed  to  his  Majesty," 
proposed  in  the  king's  name  to  his  clergy,  they  adopted 
the  form,  "  the  nation  committed  to  his  Majesty."  The 
other  royal  demands  were  modified  in  the  same  manner, 
and  it  is  consequently  obvious  that  all  the  insertions 
proposed  by  the  crown  were  weighed  with  the  greatest 
care  by  skilled  ecclesiastical  jurists  in  some  two  and 
thirty  sessions,  and  the  changes  introduced  by  them 
with  the  proposals  made  on  behalf  of  the  king  throw 
considerable  light  upon  the  meaning  which  Convocation 
intended  to  give  to  the  Siipremum  Caput  clause.      In  one 

^  Lancelot  Ridley,   Commentary  in  Englyshe  on  Say  nek  Pauleys  Epystle 
Jo  the  Ephesians,  L.  4. 


112      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

sense,  perhaps  not  the  obvious  one,  but  one  that  had 
de  facto  been  recognised  during  Cathohc  ages,  the  sove- 
reign was  the  Protector — the  advocatus — of  the  Church 
in  his  country,  and  to  him  the  clergy  would  look  to 
protect  his  people  from  the  introduction  of  heresy  and 
for  maintenance  in  their  temporalities.  So  that  whilst, 
on  the  one  hand,  the  king  and  Thomas  Crumwell 
may  well  have  desired  the  admission  of  Henry's  autho- 
rity over  "  the  English  Church,  whose  Protector  and 
supreme  Head  he  alone  is,"  to  cover  even  spiritual 
jurisdiction,  on  the  other  hand,  Warham  and  the 
English  Bishops  evidently  did  intend  it  to  cover  only 
an  admission  that  the  king  had  taken  all  jurisdiction  in 
temporals,  hitherto  exercised  by  the  Pope  in  England, 
into  his  own  hands. 

Moreover,  looking  at  what  was  demanded  and  at 
what  was  granted  by  the  clergy,  there  is  little  room 
for  doubt  that  they  at  first  deliberately  eliminated  any 
acknowledgment  of  the  Royal  jurisdiction.  This  de- 
duction is  turned  into  a  certainty  by  the  subsequent 
action  of  Archbishop  Warham.  He  first  protested  that 
the  admission  was  not  to  be  twisted  in  "derogation 
of  the  Roman  Pontiff  or  the  Apostolic  See,"  and  the 
very  last  act  of  his  life  was  the  drafting  of  an  elaborate 
exposition,  to  be  delivered  in  the  House  of  Lords,  of 
the  impossibility  of  the  king's  having  spiritual  juris- 
diction, from  the  very  nature  of  the  constitution  of 
the  Christian  Church.  Such  jurisdiction,  he  claimed, 
belonged  of  right  to  the  Roman  See.^ 

That  the  admission  wrung  from  the  clergy  in  fact 
formed  the  thin  end  of  the  wedge  which  finally  severed 

1  This  important  paper  was  printed  for  the  first  time  in  the  Dublin  Review, 
April  1S94,  pp.  390-420. 


ENGLAND  AND  THE  POPE  113 

the  English  Church  from  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the 
Holy  See  is  obvious.  But  the  "  thin  end  "  was,  there 
can  be  hardly  any  doubt,  the  temporal  aspect  of  the 
authority  of  the  Roman  See  ;  and  that  its  insertion  at 
all  was  possible  may  be  said  in  greater  measure  to  be 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  exercise  of  jurisdiction  in 
temporals  by  a  foreign  authority  had  long  been  a 
matter  which  many  Englishmen  had  strongly  resented. 


H 


CHAPTER   V 

CLERGY  AND   LAITY 

It  is  very  generally  asserted  that  on  the  eve  of  the 
Reformation  the  laity  in  England  had  no  particular 
love  or  respect  for  churchmen.  That  there  were 
grave  difBculties  and  disagreements  between  the  two 
estates  is  supposed  to  be  certain.  On  the  face  of  it, 
however,  the  reason  and  origin  of  what  is  frequently 
called  ''  the  grudge "  of  laymen  against  the  ecclesi- 
astics is  obviously  much  misunderstood.  Its  extent  is 
exaggerated,  its  origin  put  at  an  earlier  date  than 
should  be  assigned  to  it,  and  the  whole  meaning  of 
the  points  at  issue  interpreted  quite  unnecessarily  as 
evidence  of  a  popular  and  deep-seated  disbelief  in  the 
prevailing  ecclesiastical  system.  To  understand  the 
temper  of  people  and  priest  in  those  times,  it  is  ob- 
viously necessary  to  examine  into  this  question  in 
some  detail.  We  are  not  without  abundant  material 
in  the  literature  of  the  period  for  forming  a  judgment 
as  to  the  relations  which  then  existed  between  the 
clerical  and  lay  elements  in  the  State.  Fortunately, 
not  only  have  we  assertions  on  the  one  side  and  on 
the  other  as  to  the  questions  at  issue,  but  the  whole 
matter  was  debated  at  the  time  in  a  series  of  tracts 
by  two  eminent  laymen.  This  discussion  was  carried 
on   between   an   anonymous  writer,  now  recognised  as 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  115 

the  lawyer,  Christopher  Saint-German,  and  Sir  Thomas 
More  himself. 

Christopher  Saint-German,  who  is  chiefly  known 
as  the  writer  of  a  Dyaloguc  in  English  between  a  Student 
of  Law  and  a  Doctor  of  Divinity,  belonged  to  the  Inner 
Temple,  and  was,  it  has  already  been  said,  a  lawyer 
of  considerable  repute.  About  the  year  1532,  a  tract 
from  his  pen  called  A  treatise  concerning  the  division 
between  the  spiritualtie  and  temporaltie  appeared  anony- 
mously. To  this  Sir  Thomas  More,  who  had  just 
resigned  the  office  of  Chancellor,  replied  in  his  cele- 
brated Apology,  published  in  1533.  Saint -German 
rejoined  in  the  same  year  with  A  Dyalogue  between 
two  Englishmen,  whereof  one  is  called  Salem  and  the  other 
Bisance,  More  immediately  retorting  with  the  De- 
bellacyon  of  Salem  and  Bizance.  In  these  four  treatises 
the  whole  matter  of  the  supposed  feud  between  the 
clergy  and  laity  is  thrashed  out,  and  the  points  at 
issue  are  clearly  stated  and  discussed. 

Christopher  Saint-German's  position  is  at  first  some- 
what difficult  to  understand.  By  some  of  his  contem- 
poraries he  was  considered  to  have  been  tainted  by  "the 
new  teaching "  in  doctrinal  matters,  which  at  the  time 
he  wrote  was  making  some  headway  in  England.  He 
himself,  however,  professes  to  write  as  a  loyal  believer  in 
the  teaching  of  the  Church,  but  takes  exception  to  certain 
ecclesiastical  laws  and  customs  which  in  his  opinion  are 
no  necessary  part  of  the  system  at  all.  In  these  he 
thinks  he  detects  the  cause  of  the  "  division  that  had 
risen  between  the  spiritualtie  and  the  temporaltie." 
Sir  Thomas  More,  it  may  be  remarked,  is  always  careful 
to  treat  the  writer  as  if  he  believed  him  to  be  a  sincere 
Catholic,    though   mistaken   in    both  the   extent   of  the 


ii6       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

existing  disaffection  to  the  Church  and  altogether  im- 
practicable in  the  remedies  he  suggested.  In  some 
things  it  must,  however,  be  confessed,  granting  Saint- 
German's  facts,  that  he  shows  weighty  grounds  for  some 
grievance  against  the  clergy  on  the  part  of  the  laity. 

The  treatise  concerning  the  division  begins  by  ex- 
pressing regret  at  the  unfortunate  state  of  things  which 
the  author  pre-supposes  as  existing  in  England  when 
he  wrote  in  1532,  contrasting  it  with  what  he  remem- 
bered before.  ''  Who  may  remember  the  state  of  this 
realm  now  in  these  days,"  he  writes,  "  without  great 
heaviness  and  sorrow  of  heart  ?  For  whereas,  in  times 
past,  there  has  reigned  charity,  meekness,  concord,  and 
peace,  there  now  reigns  envy,  pride,  division,  and  strife, 
and  that  not  only  between  laymen  and  churchmen,  but 
also  between  religious  and  religious,  and  between  priests 
and  religious,  and  what  is  more  to  be  lamented  also 
between  priests  and  priests.  This  division  has  been  so 
universal  that  it  has  been  a  great  (cause  of)  disquiet 
and  a  great  breach  of  charity  through  all  the  realm."  ^ 

It  must  be  confessed  that  if  this  passage  is  to  be 
taken  as  it  stands,  the  division  would  appear  to  have 
been  very  widely  spread  at  the  time.  Sir  Thomas  More, 
whilst  denying  that  the  difficulty  was  so  great  as  Saint- 
German  would  make  out,  admits  that  in  late  years  the 
spirit  had  grown  and  was  still  growing  apace.  He 
holds,  however,  that  Saint-German's  reasons  for  its  ex- 
istence are  not  the  true  ones,  and  that  his  methods  will 
only  serve  to  increase  the  spirit  of  division.  As  regards 
the  quarrels  between  religious,  at  which  Saint-German 
expresses  his  indignation,  he  says  :   "  Except  this  man 

^  A  treatise  concernitig  the  division  between  the  spiritualtie  and  teniporaltie. 
London  :  Robert  Redman,  f.  2. 


CLERGY  AND   LAITY  117 

means  here  by  religious  folk,  either  women  and  children 
with  whose  variances  the  temporality  is  not  very  much 
disturbed,  or  else  the  lay  brethren,  who  are  in  some 
places  of  religion,  and  who  are  neither  so  many  nor  so 
much  esteemed,  that  ever  the  temporality  was  much 
troubled  at  their  strife,  besides  this  there  is  no  variance 
between  religious  and  religious  with  which  the  tempo- 
rality have  been  offended."  ^  Again :  "Of  some  particular 
variance  among  divers  persons  of  the  clergy  I  have 
indeed  heard,  as  sometimes  one  against  another  for  his 
tithes,  or  a  parson  against  a  religious  place  for  meddling 
with  his  parish,  or  one  place  ot  religion  with  another 
upon  some  such  like  occasions,  or  sometime  some  one 
religious  (order)  have  had  some  question  and  dispute 
as  to  the  antiquity  or  seniority  of  its  institution,  as  (for 
instance)  the  Carmelites  claim  to  derive  their  origin 
from  Elias  and  Eliseus  :  and  some  question  has  arisen 
in  the  Order  of  Saint  Francis  between  the  Observants 
and  the  Conventuals  (for  of  the  third  company,  that  is 
to  say  the  Colettines,  there  are  none  in  this  realm). 
But  of  all  these  matters,  as  far  as  I  have  read  or 
remember,  there  were  never  in  this  realm  either  so 
very  great  or  so  many  such  (variances)  all  at  once, 
that  it  was  ever  at  the  time  remarked  through  the  realm 
and  spoken  of  as  a  great  and  notable  fault  of  the  whole 
clergy."  Particular  faults  and  petty  quarrels  should  not 
be  considered  the  cause  of  any  great  grudge  against  the 
clergy  at  large.  "And  as  it  is  not  in  reason  that  it 
should  be,  so  in  fact  it  is  not  so,  as  may  be  understood 
from  this  : "   .  .   .   "  if  it  were  the  case,  then  must  this 

^  English  Works,  p.  871.  In  the  quotations  made  from  the  works  of 
Sir  Thomas  More  and  other  old  writings,  for  the  sake  of  the  general  reader 
the  modern  form  of  spelling  has  been  adopted,  and  at  times  the  words  trans- 
posed to  ensure  greater  clearness. 


ii8       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

grudge  of  ours  against  them  have  been  a  very  old  thing, 
whereas  it  is  indeed  neither  so  great  as  this  man  maketh 
out,  nor  grown  to  so  great  (a  pass)  as  it  is,  but  only 
even  so  late  as  Tyndale's  books  and  Frith's  and  Friar 
Barnes'  began  to  go  abroad."  ^ 

Further,  in  several  places  Sir  Thomas  More  em- 
phatically asserts  that  the  talking  against  the  clergy, 
the  hostile  feeling  towards  them,  and  the  dissensions 
said  to  exist  between  them  and  lay  folk  generally,  were 
only  of  very  recent  origin,  and  were  at  worst  not  very 
serious.  "  I  have,  within  these  four  or  five  years  (for 
before  I  heard  little  talk  of  such  things),"  he  writes, 
"  been  present  at  such  discussions  in  divers  good  com- 
panies, never  talking  in  earnest  thereof  (for  as  yet  I 
thank  God  that  I  never  heard  such  talk),  but  as  a  pass- 
time  and  in  the  way  of  familiar  talking,  I  have  heard  at 
such  times  some  in  hand  with  prelates  and  secular 
priests  and  religious  persons,  and  talk  of  their  lives, 
and  their  learning,  and  of  their  livelihood  too,  and  as 
to  whether  they  were  such,  that  it  were  better  to  have 
them  or  not  to  have  them.  Then  touching  their  liveli- 
hood (it  was  debated),  whether  it  might  be  lawfully 
taken  away  from  them  or  no  ;  and  if  it  might,  whether 
it  were  expedient  for  it  to  be  taken,  and  if  so  for  what 
use."  ^ 

To  this  Saint-German  replies  at  length  in  his  Salem 
and  Bizanccy  and  says  that  Sir  Thomas  More  must  have 
known  that  the  difficulties  had  their  origin  long  before 
the  rise  of  the  new  religious  views,  and  were  not  in  any 
sense  founded  upon  the  opinions  of  the  modern  here- 
tics.^      More  answers  by  reasserting   his  position  that 

»  Ibid.,  p.  875.  -  Ibid.,  p.  882. 

^  Salem  aitd  Bizance.      A  dialogue  bet7vixte  two  Englishmen,  whereof  one 
was  called  Salem  and  the  otlier  Bizance.     London  :  Berthelet,  1533,  f.  5. 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  119 

"  the  division  is  nothing  such  as  this  man  makes  it,  and 
is  grown  as  great  as  it  is  only  since  Tyndale's  books 
and  Frith's  and  Friar  Barnes'  began  to  be  spread 
abroad."  And  in  answer  to  Saint-German's  sugges- 
tion that  he  should  look  a  little  more  closely  into  the 
matter,  he  says  :  "  Indeed,  with  better  looking  thereon 
I  find  it  somewhat  otherwise.  For  I  find  the  time 
of  such  increase  as  I  speak  of  much  shorter  than  I 
assigned,  and  that  by  a  great  deal.  For  it  has  grown 
greater "  by  reason  of  "  the  book  upon  the  division," 
which  Saint-German  with  the  best  of  intentions  had 
circulated  among  the  people.  ^ 

Putting  one  book  against  the  other,  it  would  appear 
then  tolerably  certain  that  the  rise  of  the  anti-clerical 
spirit  in  England  must  be  dated  only  just  before  the 
dawn  of  the  Reformation,  when  the  popular  mind  was 
being  stirred  up  by  the  new  teachers  against  the  clergy. 
There  seems,  moreover,  no  reason  to  doubt  the  positive 
declaration  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  who  had  every  means 
of  knowing,  that  the  outcry  was  modern — so  modern 
indeed  that  it  was  practically  unknown  only  four  or 
five  years  before  1533,  and  that  it  originated  un- 
doubtedly from  the  dissemination  of  Lutheran  views 
and  teachings  by  Tyndale  and  others.  It  is  useful  to 
examine  well  into  the  grounds  upon  which  this  anti- 
clerical campaign  was  conducted,  and  to  note  the 
chief  causes  of  objection  to  the  clergy  which  are  found 
set  forth  by  Saint-German  in  his  books.  In  the  first 
place  :  "  Some  say,"  he  writes,  that  priests  and  religious 
"  keep  not  the  perfection  of  their  order,"  and  do  not 
set  that  good  example  to  the  people  "  they  should  do." 
Some  also  work  for  "  their  own  honour,  and  call  it  the 

^  English  Works,  p.  934. 


I20      THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

honour  of  God,  and  rather  covet  to  have  rule  over  the 
people  than  to  profit  the  people."  Others  think  more 
about  their  "  bodily  ease  and  worldly  wealth  and  meat 
and  drink,"  and  the  like,  even  more  than  lay  people  do. 
Others,  again,  serve  God  "  for  worldly  motives,  to  obtain 
the  praise  of  men,  to  enrich  themselves  and  the  like, 
and  not  from  any  great  love  of  God." 

Such  is  the  first  division  of  the  general  accusations 
which  Saint-German  states  were  popularly  made  against 
the  clergy  in  1532.  Against  these  may  be  usefully  set 
Sir  Thomas  More's  examination  of  the  charges,  and  his 
own  opinion  as  to  the  state  of  the  clergy.  In  his  pre- 
vious works  he  had,  he  says,  forborne  to  use  words 
unpleasant  either  to  the  clergy  or  laity  about  them- 
selves, though  he  had  "  confessed  what  is  true,  namely, 
that  neither  were  faultless."  But  what  had  offended 
"  these  blessed  brethren,"  the  English  followers  of 
Luther,  was  that  "  I  have  not  hesitated  to  say,  what 
I  also  take  for  the  very  truth,  that  as  this  realm  of 
England  has,  God  be  thanked,  as  good  and  praise- 
worthy a  temporality,  number  for  number,  as  any 
other  Christian  country  of  equal  number  has  had,  so 
has  it  had  also,  number  for  number,  compared  with 
any  other  realm  of  no  greater  number  in  Christendom, 
as  good  and  as  commendable  a  clergy.  In  both  there 
have  never  been  wanting  plenty  of  those  who  have 
always  been  '  naught '  ;  but  their  faults  have  ever  been 
their  own  and  should  not  be  imputed  to  the  whole 
body,  neither  in  the  spirituality  nor  temporality."  ^ 

Turning  to  the  special  accusation  made  by  Saint- 
German  that  ecclesiastics  "  do  not  keep  the  perfection 
of  their   order,"   More  grants   that  this   may  "  not  be 

1  Ibid.,  p.  870. 


CLERGY  AND   LAITY  121 

much  untrue."  For  "  Man's  duty  to  God  is  so  great 
that  very  few  serve  Him  as  they  should  do."  ..."  But, 
I  suppose,  they  keep  it  now  at  this  day  much  after 
such  a  good  metely  manner  as  they  did  in  the  years 
before,  during  which  this  division  was  never  dreamed 
of,  and  therefore  those  who  say  this  is  the  cause  have 
need  to  go  seek  some  other."  ^  To  the  second  point 
his  reply  is  equally  clear.  It  is  true.  More  thinks, 
that  some  ecclesiastics  do  look  perhaps  to  their  own 
honour  and  profit,  but,  he  asks,  "  were  there  never 
any  such  till  so  lately  as  the  beginning  of  this  division, 
or  are  all  of  them  like  this  now  ? "  No  doubt  there 
are  some  such,  and  "  I  pray  God  that  when  any  new 
ones  shall  come  they  may  prove  no  worse.  For  of 
these,  if  they  wax  not  worse  before  they  die,  those  who 
shall  live  after  them  may,  in  my  mind,  be  bold  to  say 
that  England  had  not  their  betters  any  time  these  forty 
years,  and  I  dare  go  for  a  good  way  beyond  this  too. 
But  this  is  more  than  twenty  years,  and  ten  before  this 
division  "  (between  the  clergy  and  laity)  was  heard  of.^ 
Further,  as  far  as  his  own  opinion  goes,  although  there 
may  be,  and  probably  are,  some  priests  and  religious 
whom  the  world  accounts  good  and  virtuous,  who  are 
yet  at  heart  evil-minded,  this  is  no  reason  to  despise 
or  condemn  the  whole  order.  Equally  certain  is  it 
that  besides  such  there  are  "  many  very  virtuous,  holy 
men  indeed,  whose  holiness  and  prayer  have  been,  I 
verily  believe,  one  great  special  cause  that  God  has 
so  long  held  His  hand  from  letting  some  heavier  stroke 
fall  on  the  necks  of  those  whether  in  the  spirituality 
or  temporality  who  are  naught  and  care  not."  ^ 

1  Ibid.,  p.  877.  2  Ibid.,  p.  877. 

=)  Ibid.,  p.  878. 


122       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

In  his  Apology,  Sir  Thomas  More  protested  against 
the  author  of  the  work  on  the  Division  translating  a 
passage  from  the  Latin  of  John  Gerson,  about  the  evil 
lives  of  priests  ;  and  on  Saint-German  excusing  himself 
in  his  second  book,  More  returns  to  the  point  in  The 
Debellation  of  Salem  and  Bizance.  More  had  pleaded 
that  his  opponent  had  dragged  the  faults  of  the  clergy 
into  light  rather  than  those  of  the  laity,  because  if  the 
priests  led  good  lives,  as  St.  John  Chrysostom  had  said, 
the  whole  Church  would  be  in  a  good  state  ;  "  and  if 
they  were  corrupt,  the  faith  and  virtue  of  the  people 
fades  also  and  vanishes  away."  "Surely,  good  readers," 
exclaims  More,  "  I  like  these  words  well."  They  are 
very  good,  and  they  prove  "  the  matter  right  well,  and 
very  true  is  it,  nor  did  I  ever  say  the  contrary,  but 
have  in  my  Apology  plainly  said  the  same  :  that  every 
fault  in  a  spiritual  man  is,  by  the  difference  of  the 
person,  far  worse  and  more  odious  to  God  and  man 
than  if  it  were  in  a  temporal  man."  And  indeed  the 
saying  of  St.  Chrysostom  "were  in  part  the  very  cause 
that  made  me  write  against  his  {i.e.  Saint-German's)  book. 
For  assuredly,  as  St.  Chrysostom  says  :  '  If  the  priest- 
hood be  corrupt,  the  faith  and  virtue  of  the  people 
fades  and  vanishes  away.'  This  is  without  any  question 
very  true,  for  though  St  Chrysostom  had  never  said  it, 
our  Saviour  says  as  much  himself.  '  Ye  are  (saith  He 
to  the  clergy)  the  salt  of  the  earth.'  .  .  .  But,  I  say, 
since  the  priesthood  is  corrupted  it  must  needs  follow 
that  the  faith  and  virtue  of  the  people  fades  and 
vanishes  away,  and  on  Christ's  words  it  must  follow 
that,  if  the  spirituality  be  nought,  the  temporality  must 
needs  be  worse  than  they.  I,  upon  this,  conclude 
on  the  other  side    against  this  '  Pacifier's  '  book,  that 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  123 

since  this  realm  has  (as  God  be  thanked  indeed  it  has) 
as  good  and  as  faithful  a  temporality  (though  there  be 
a  few  false  brethren  in  a  great  multitude  of  true  Catholic 
men)  as  any  other  Christian  country  of  equal  size  has, 
it  must  needs,  I  say,  follow  that  the  clergy  (though  it 
have  some  such  false  evil  brethren  too)  is  not  so 
sorely  corrupted  as  the  book  of  Division  would  make 
people  think,  but  on  their  side  they  are  as  good  as  the 
temporality  are  on  theirs.-^ 

On  one  special  point  Saint-German  insists  very 
strongly.  As  it  is  a  matter  upon  which  much  has  been 
said,  and  upon  which  people  are  inclined  to  believe  the 
worst  about  the  pre-Reformation  clergy,  it  may  be 
worth  while  to  give  his  views  at  some  length,  and  then 
take  Sir  Thomas  Mere's  opinion  also  on  the  subject.  It 
is  on  the  eternal  question  of  the  riches  of  the  Church, 
and  the  supposed  mercenary  spirit  which  pervaded  the 
clergy.  "  Some  lay  people  say,"  writes  Saint-German, 
"that  however  much  religious  men  have  disputed 
amongst  themselves  as  to  the  pre-eminence  of  their 
particular  state  in  all  such  things  as  pertain  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  worldly  honour  of  the  Church  and 
of  spiritual  men,  which  they  call  the  honour  of  God, 
and  in  all  such  things  as  pertain  to  the  increase  of 
the  riches  of  spiritual  men,  all,  religious  or  secular, 
agree  as  one."  For  this  reason  it  is  found  that  re- 
ligious men  are  much  more  earnest  in  trying  to  in- 
duce people  to  undertake  and  support  such  works 
as  produce  money  for  themselves,  such  as  trentals, 
chantries,  obits,  pardons,  and  pilgrimages,  than  in 
insisting  upon  the  payments  of  debts,  upon  restitution 
for  wrong   done,  or   upon  works   of   mercy  "  to  their 

1  Ibid.,  pp.  937,  938. 


124      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

neighbours    poor    and   needy — sometimes    in    extreme 
necessity."  ^ 

Sir  Thomas  More  repHes  that  those  who  object  in 
this  way,  object  not  so  much  because  the  trentals,  &c., 
tend  to  make  priests  rich,  but  because  they  "  hate  "  the 
things  themselves.  Indeed,  some  of  these  things  are 
not  such  that  they  make  priests  so  very  rich,  in  fact,  as 
to  induce  them  to  use  all  endeavour  to  procure  them. 
The  chantries,  for  example,  "  though  they  are  many,  no 
one  man  can  make  any  very  great  living  out  of  them  ; 
and  that  a  priest  should  have  some  living  of  such  a 
mean  thing  as  the  chantries  commonly  are,  no  good 
man  will  find  great  fault."  As  for  pilgrimages,  "though 
the  shrines  are  well  garnished,  and  the  chapel  well 
hanged  with  wax  (candles),  few  men  nowadays,  I  fear, 
can  have  much  cause  to  grudge  or  complain  of  the 
great  offerings  required  from  them.  Those  men  make 
the  most  ado  who  offer  nothing  at  all."  And  with 
regard  to  "pardons,"  it  should  be  remembered  that 
they  were  procured  often  "  by  the  good  faithful 
devotion  of  virtuous  secular  princes,  as  was  the  great 
pardon  purchased  for  Westminster  and  the  Savoy  "  by 
Henry  VII.  "And  in  good  faith  I  never  yet  per- 
ceived," he  says,  "  that  people  make  such  great  offer- 
ings at  a  pardon  that  we  should  either  much  pity  their 
expense  or  envy  the  priests  that  profit." 

"  But  then  the  trentals  !  Lo,  they  are  the  things,  as 
you  well  know,  by  which  the  multitude  of  the  clergy  and 
specially  the  prelates,  all  get  an  infinite  treasure  each 
year."  For  himself.  Sir  Thomas  More  hopes  and 
"beseeches  God  to  keep  men  devoted  to  the  trentals 
and  obits  too."      But  where  this  "  Pacifier  "  asserts  that 

^  A  treatise  coiicernifig  the  division,  f.  8. 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  125 

"some  say  that  all  spiritual  men  as  a  body  induce  people 
to  pilgrimages,  pardons,  chantries,  obits,  and  trentals^ 
rather  than  to  the  payment  of  their  debts,  or  to  restitu- 
tion of  their  wrongs,  or  to  deeds  of  mercy  to  their 
neighbours  that  are  poor  and  needy,  and  sometimes  in 
extreme  necessity,  for  my  part,  I  thank  God,"  he  says, 
"that  I  never  heard  yet  of  any  one  who  ever  would 
give  that  counsel,  and  no  more  has  this  '  Pacifier '  him- 
self, for  he  says  it  only  under  his  common  figure  of 
'  some  say.'  "  ^ 

In  his  second  reply,  More  returns  to  the  same 
subject.  Saint-German  speaks  much,  he  says,  about 
"  restitution."  This,  should  there  be  need,  no  reason- 
able man  would  object  to.  "  But  now  the  matter 
standeth  all  in  this  way :  this  man  talks  as  if  the 
spirituality  were  very  busy  to  procure  men  and  induce 
people  (generally)  to  give  money  for  trentals,  to  found 
chantries  and  obits,  to  obtain  pardons  and  to  go  on 
pilgrimages,  leaving  their  debts  unpaid  and  restitution 
unmade  which  should  be  done  first,  and  that  this  was 
the  custom  of  the  spirituality.  In  this,"  says  More, 
"standeth  the  question."  The  point  is  not  whether 
debts  and  restitution  should  be  satisfied  before  all  other 
things,  which  all  will  allow,  but  whether  the  "  multitude 
of  the  clergy,  that  is  to  say  either  all  but  a  few,  or  at 
least  the  most  part,  solicit  and  labour  lay  people  to  do 
these  (voluntary)  things  rather  than  pay  their  debts  or 
make  restitution  for  their  wrongs.  .  .  .  That  the  multi- 
tude of  priests  do  this,  I  never  heard  any  honest  man 
for  very  shame  say.  For  I  think  it  were  hard  to  meet 
with  a  priest  so  wretched,  who,  were  he  asked  his 
advice  and  counsel  on  that  point,  would  not  in  so  plaia 

^  English  Works^  p.  880. 


126       THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

a  matter,  though  out  of  very  shame,  well  and  plainly 
counsel  the  truth,  and  if  perchance  there  were  found  any 
so  shameless  as  to  give  contrary  counsel,  I  am  very 
sure  they  would  be  by  far  the  fewer,  and  not  as  this 
good  man's  first  book  says,  the  greater  part  and  multi- 
tude." What,  therefore.  More  blames  so  much  is,  that 
under  pretext  of  an  altogether  "  untrue  report "  the 
clergy  generally  are  held  up  to  obloquy  and  their  good 
name  slandered.^  If  he  thinks  that  "  I  do  but  mock 
him  to  my  poor  wit,  I  think  it  somewhat  more  civility 
in  some  such  points  as  this  to  mock  him  a  little  merrily, 
than  with  odious  earnest  arguments  to  discuss  matters 
seriously  with  him." 

In  some  things  even  Saint -German  considers  the 
outcry  raised  against  the  clergy  unreasonable.  But 
then,  as  he  truly  says,  many  "  work  rather  upon  will 
than  upon  reason,"  and  though  possessed  of  great  and 
good  zeal  are  lacking  in  necessary  discretion.  Thus 
some  people,  seeing  the  evils  that  come  to  the  Church 
from  riches,  "  have  held  the  opinion  that  it  was  not  lawful 
for  the  Church  to  have  any  possessions."  Others, 
"  taking  a  more  mean  way,"  have  thought  that  the 
Church  ought  not  to  have  "  that  great  abundance  that " 
it  has,  for  this  induces  a  love  of  riches  in  churchmen  and 
"  hinders,  and  in  a  manner  strangles,  the  love  of  God." 
These  last  would-be  reformers  of  churchmen  advocate 
taking  away  all  that  is  not  necessary.  Others,  again, 
have  gone  a  step  further  still,  "and  because  great  riches 
have  come  to  the  Church  for  praying  for  souls  in  Pur- 
gatory, have  affirmed  that  there  is  no  Purgatory."  In 
the  same  way  such  men  would  be  against  pardons, 
pilgrimages,    and   chantries.      They   outwardly    appear 

1  Ibid.,  p.  95i« 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  127 

"  to  rise  against  all  these  .  .  .  and  to  despise  them,  and 
yet  in  their  hearts  they  know  and  believe  that  all  such 
things  are  of  themselves  right  good  and  profitable,  as 
indeed  they  are,  if  they  are  ordered  as  they  should 
be."i 

Sir  Thomas  More  truly  says  that  what  is  implied  in 
this  outcry  against  the  riches  of  the  clergy  is  that  as  a 
body  they  lead  idle,  luxurious,  if  not  vicious  lives.  It 
is  easy  enough  to  talk  in  this  way,  but  how  many  men 
in  secular  occupations,  he  asks,  would  be  willing  to 
change  ?  There  might  be  *'  some  who  would,  and 
gladly  would,  have  become  prelates  (for  I  have  heard 
many  laymen  who  would  very  willingly  have  been 
bishops),  and  there  might  be  found  enough  to  match 
those  that  are  evil  and  naughty  secular  priests,  and 
those  too  who  have  run  away  from  the  religious  life, 
and  these  would,  and  were  able  to,  match  them  in  their 
own  ways  were  they  never  so  bad.  Yet,  as  the  world 
goes  now,  it  would  not  be  very  easy,  I  ween,  to  find 
sufficient  to  match  the  good,  even  though  they  be  as 
few  as  some  folk  would  have  them  to  be." 

In  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  his  book  on  the  Divisiouy 
Saint-German  deals  specially  with  the  religious  life  and 
with  what  in  his  opinion  people  think  about  it,  and 
about  those  who  had  given  up  their  liberty  for  a  life  in 
the  cloister.  The  matter  is  important,  and  considerable 
extracts  are  necessary  fully  to  understand  the  position. 
"  Another  cause "  of  the  disHke  of  the  clergy  by  the 
laity  is  to  be  sought  for  in  the  "  great  laxity  and  liberty 
of  living  that  people  have  seen  in  religious  men.  For 
they  say,  that  though  religious  men  profess  obedience 
and  poverty,  yet  many  of  them  have  and  will  have  their 

^  A  treatise  concerning  the  division,  f.  3. 


128      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

own  will,  with  plenty  of  delicate  food  in  such  abundance 
that  no  obedience  or  poverty  appears  in  them.  For 
this  reason  many  have  said,  and  yet  say  to  the  present 
day,  that  religious  men  have  the  most  pleasant  and 
dehcate  life  that  any  men  have.  And  truly,  if  we 
behold  the  holiness  and  blessed  examples  of  the  holy 
fathers,  and  of  many  religious  persons  that  have  lived 
in  times  past,  and  of  many  that  now  live  in  these  days, 
we  should  see  right  great  diversity  between  them.  For 
many  of  them,  I  trow,  as  great  diversity  as  between 
heaven  and  hell."  Then,  after  quoting  the  eighteenth 
chapter  of  The  Following  of  Christ,  he  proceeds  :  "  Thus 
far  goeth  the  said  chapter.  But  the  great  pity  is  that 
most  men  say  that  at  the  present  day  many  religious 
men  will  rather  follow  their  own  will  than  the  will  of 
their  superior,  and  that  they  will  neither  suffer  hunger 
nor  thirst,  heat  nor  cold,  nakedness,  weariness  nor 
labour,  but  will  have  riches,  honour,  dignities,  friends, 
and  worldly  acquaintances,  the  attendance  of  servants 
at  their  commands,  pleasure  and  disports,  and  that 
more  liberally  than  temporal  men  have.  Thus,  say 
some,  are  they  fallen  from  true  religion,  whereby  the 
devotion  of  the  people  is  in  a  manner  fallen  from 
them." 

"Nevertheless,  I  doubt  not  that  there  are  many 
right  good  and  virtuous  religious  persons.  God  forbid 
that  it  should  be  otherwise.  But  it  is  said  that  there 
are  many  evil,  and  that  in  such  a  multitude  that  those 
who  are  good  cannot,  or  will  not,  see  them  reformed. 
And  one  great  cause  that  hinders  reform  is  this  :  if  the 
most  dissolute  person  in  all  the  community,  and  the 
one  who  lives  most  openly  against  the  rules  of  religion, 
can    use   this    policy,    namely,  to    extol   his    (form    of) 


CLERGY  AND   LAITY  129 

religious  life  above  all  others,  pointing  them  out  as  not 
being  so  perfect  as  that  to  which  he  belongs,  anon  he 
shall  be  called  a  good  fervent  brother,  and  one  that 
supports  his  Order,  and  for  this  reason  his  offences 
shall  be  looked  on  the  more  lightly." 

"Another  thing  that  has  caused  many  people  to 
mislike  religious  has  been  the  great  extremity  that  has 
been  many  times  witnessed  at  the  elections  of  abbots, 
priors,  and  such  other  spiritual  sovereigns.  And  this  is 
a  general  ground,  for  when  religious  men  perceive  that 
people  mislike  them,  they  in  their  hearts  withdraw  their 
favour  and  devotion  again  from  them.  And  in  this  way 
charity  has  waxed  cold  between  them." 

"  And  verily,  I  suppose,  that  it  were  better  that  there 
should  be  no  abbot  or  prior  hereafter  allowed  to  con- 
tinue over  a  certain  number  of  years,  and  that  these 
should  be  appointed  by  the  authority  of  the  rulers, 
rather  than  have  such  extremities  at  elections,  as  in 
many  places  has  been  used  in  times  past. 

"  And  verily,  it  seems  to  me,  one  thing  would  do 
great  good  concerning  religious  Orders  and  all  re- 
ligious persons,  and  that  is  this  :  that  the  Rules  and  Con- 
stitutions of  religious  bodies  should  be  examined  and  well 
considered,  whether  their  rigour  and  straightness  can 
be  borne  now  in  these  days  as  they  were  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  religious  Orders.  For  people  be  nowadays 
weaker,  as  to  the  majority  of  men,  than  they  were  then. 
And  if  it  is  thought  that  they  {i.e.  the  Rules)  cannot  now 
be  kept,  that  then  such  relaxations  and  interpretations 
of  their  rules  be  made,  as  shall  be  thought  expedient  by 
the  rulers.  Better  it  is  to  have  an  easy  rule  well  kept, 
than  a  strict  rule  broken  without  correction.  For, 
thereof  foUoweth  a  boldness  to  offend,  a  quiet  heart  in 

I 


130      THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

an  evil  conscience  :  a  custom  in  sin,  with  many  an  ill 
example  to  the  people.  By  this  many  have  found  fault 
at  all  religious  life,  where  they  should  rather  have  found 
fault  at  divers  abuses  against  the  true  religion.  Certain 
it  is  that  religious  Hfe  was  first  ordained  by  the  holy 
fathers  by  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  keep  it 
who  so  may."  ^ 

Much  of  this  criticism  on  the  state  of  the  religious 
orders  on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation  is  obviously  only 
very  general,  and  would  apply  to  all  states  of  society, 
composed,  as  such  bodies  are,  of  human  members. 
With  much  that  Saint-German  suggests,  it  is  impossible 
not  to  agree  in  principle,  however  difficult  the  attain- 
ment of  the  ideal  may  be  in  practice.  Sir  Thomas 
More,  whilst  admitting  that  there  were  undoubtedly 
things  requiring  correction  in  the  religious  life  of  the 
period,  maintains  most  strongly  that  in  practical  work- 
ing it  was  far  better  than  any  one  would  gather  from 
the  assertions  and  suggestions  of  Saint-German,  and 
that  in  reality,  with  all  their  carping  at  laxity  and  world- 
liness,  none  of  the  critics  of  the  monks  would  be  wiUing 
to  change  places  with  them.  "  As  wealthy,"  he  writes, 
"and  as  easy  and  as  glorious  as  some  tell  'the  pacifier'  re- 
ligious life  is,  yet  if  some  other  would  say  to  them  :  *  Lo 
sirs,  those  folks  who  are  in  religion  shall  out,  come  you 
into  religion  in  their  steads  ;  live  there  better  than  they 
do,  and  you  shall  have  heaven,'  they  would  answer,  I  fear 
me,  that  they  are  not  weary  of  the  world.  And  even  if 
they  were  invited  into  religion  another  way,  and  it  was 
said  to  them,  '  Sir,  we  will  not  bid  you  live  so  straight 
in  religion  as  these  men  should  have  done  ;  come  on 
enter,  and  do  just  as  they  did,  and  then  you  will  have  a 

^  A  treatise  concerning  the  divisioti,  f.  41. 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  131 

good,  easy,  and  wealthy  life,  and  much  worldly  praise 
for  it, — I  ween  for  all  that,  a  man  would  not  get  them 
to  go  into  it.  But  as  easy  as  we  call  it,  and  as  wealthy 
too — and  now  peradventure  when  our  wives  are  angry 
we  wish  ourselves  therein — were  it  offered  ...  I  ween 
that  for  all  our  words,  if  that  easy  and  wealthy  life  that 
is  in  religion  were  offered  to  us,  even  as  weary  as  we 
are  of  wedding,  we  would  rather  bear  all  our  pain 
abroad  than  take  a  religious  man's  life  of  ease  in  the 
cloister."  ^ 

With  some  of  the  accusations  of  Saint-German,  or 
rather  with  some  of  his  explanations  of  the  supposed 
"grudge"  borne  by  the  laity  to  the  clergy,  More  has 
hardly  the  patience  to  deal.  They,  the  clergy,  and  above 
all  religious,  should,  the  former  says,  "  give  alms  and 
wear  hair  (shirts),  and  fast  and  pray  that  this  division 
may  cease."  "  Pray,  wear  hair,  fast,  and  give  alms,"  says 
the  latter  ;  "  why,  what  else  do  they  do  as  a  rule  ?  Some 
may  not ;  but  then  there  were  some  negligent  in  those 
matters  for  the  past  thousand  years,  and  so  the  present 
negligence  of  a  few  can't  be  the  cause  of  the  dissension 
now."  "  But  this  '  pacifier,'  perceiving  that  what  one 
man  does  in  secret  another  cannot  see,  is  therefore  bold 
to  say  they  do  not  do  all  those  things  he  would  have 
them  do  ;  that  is  to  say,  fast,  pray,  wear  hair  (shirts), 
and  give  alms.  For  he  says  '  that  they  do  all  these 
things  it  appears  not.'  " 

Now,  "  as  to  praying,  it  appears  indeed  that  they  do 
this  ;  and  that  so  much  that  they  daily  pray,  as  some 
of  us  lay  men  think  it  a  pain  (to  do)  once  a  week  ;  to 
rise  so  soon  from  sleep  and  to  wait  so  long  fasting,  as 
on  a  Sunday  to  come  and  hear  out  their  matins.     And 

J  English  Works,  p.  884. 


132       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

yet  the  matins  in  every  parish  is  neither  begun  so  early 
nor  so  long  in  the  saying  as  it  is  in  the  Charter  house 
you  know  well  ;  and  yet  at  the  sloth  and  gluttony  of  us, 
who  are  lay  people,  he  can  wink  and  fan  himself  asleep. 
But  as  soon  as  the  lips  of  the  clergy  stop  moving  he 
quickly  spies  out  that  they  are  not  praying." 

And  "  now  as  touching  on  alms :  Is  there  none 
given,  does  he  think,  by  the  spirituality  ?  If  he  say,  as 
he  does,  that  it  does  not  appear  that  they  do  give  alms, 
I  might  answer  again  that  they  but  follow  in  this  the 
counsel  of  Christ  which  says  :  '  Let  not  the  left  hand 
see  what  thy  right  hand  doeth.'  .  .  .  But  as  God,  for 
all  that  counsel,  was  content  that  men  should  both  pray 
and  give  to  the  needy  and  do  other  works  both  of 
penance  and  of  charity  openly  and  abroad,  where  there 
is  no  desire  of  vain  glory,  but  that  the  people  by  the 
sight  thereof  might  have  occasion  therefore  to  give  laud 
and  praise  to  God,  so  I  dare  say  boldly  that  they,  both 
secretly  and  openly  too,  .  .  .  give  no  little  alms  in  the 
year,  whatsoever  this  '  pacifier '  do  say.  And  I  some- 
what marvel,  since  he  goes  so  busily  abroad  that  there 
is  no  *  some  say,'  almost  in  the  whole  realm,  which  he 
does  not  hear  and  repeat  it  ;  I  marvel,  I  say,  not  a  little 
that  he  neither  sees  nor  hears  from  any  '  some  say  ' 
that  there  is  almsgiving  in  the  spirituality  ;  I  do  not 
much  myself  go  very  far  abroad,  and  yet  I  hear  '  some 
say '  that  there  is  ;  and  I  myself  see  sometimes  so  many 
poor  folk  at  Westminster  at  the  doles,  of  whom,  as  far 
as  I  have  ever  heard,  the  monks  are  not  wont  to  send 
many  away  unserved,  that  I  have  myself  for  the  press 
of  them  been  fain  to  ride  another  way." 

"  But  to  this,  some  one  once  answered  me  and 
said  ;    '  that   it  was    no   thanks   to   them,  for   it  (came 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  133 

from)  lands  that  good  princes  have  given  them.'  But, 
as  I  then  told  him,  it  was  then  much  less  thanks  to 
them  that  would  now  give  good  princes  evil  counsel  to 
take  it  from  them.  And  also  if  we  are  to  call  it  not 
giving  of  alms  by  them,  because  other  good  men  have 
given  them  the  lands  from  which  they  give  it,  from 
what  will  you  have  them  give  alms  ?  They  have  no 
other.   .  .  ." 

Further  replying  to  the  insinuation  of  Saint-German 
that  the  religious  keep  retainers  and  servants  out  of 
pride  and  for  "  proud  worldly  countenance,"  Sir  Thomas 
More  says  :  "  If  men  were  as  ready  in  regard  to  a  deed 
of  their  own,  by  nature  indifferent,  to  construe  the 
mind  and  intent  of  the  doer  to  the  better  part,  as  they 
are,  of  their  own  inward  goodness,  to  construe  and 
report  it  to  the  worst,  then  might  I  say,  that  the  very 
thing  which  they  call  '  the  proud  worldly  countenance  ' 
they  might  and  should  call  charitable  alms.  That  is  to 
say,  (when  they  furnish)  the  right  honest  keep  and 
good  bringing  up  of  so  many  temporal  men  in  their 
service,  who  though  not  beggars  yet  perhaps  the 
greater  part  of  them  might  have  to  beg  if  they  did 
not  support  them  but  sent  them  out  to  look  for  some 
service  for  themselves,"  (they  are  giving  charitable 
alms). 

"  And  just  as  if  you  would  give  a  poor  man  some 
money  because  he  was  in  need  and  yet  would  make 
him  go  and  work  for  it  in  your  garden,  lest  by  your 
alms  he  should  live  idle  and  become  a  loiterer,  the 
labour  he  does,  does  not  take  away  the  nature  nor 
merit  of  alms  :  so  neither  is  the  keeping  of  servants 
no  alms,  though  they  may  wait  on  the  finder  and  serve 
him  in  his  house.     And  of  all  alms  the  chief  is,  to  see 


134      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

people  well  brought  up  and  well  and  honestly  guided. 
In  which  point,  though  neither  part  do  fully  their  duty, 
yet  I  believe  in  good  faith  that  in  this  matter,  which  is 
no  small  alms,  the  spirituality  is  rather  somewhat  before 
us  than  in  any  way  drags  behind."^ 

With  regard  to  the  charge  brought  against  the 
clergy  of  great  laxity  in  fasting  and  mortification.  More 
thinks  this  is  really  a  point  on  which  he  justly  can 
make  merry.  Fasting,  he  says,  must  be  regulated  ac- 
cording to  custom  and  the  circumstances  of  time  and 
place.  If  there  were  to  be  a  cast-iron  rule  for  fasting, 
then,  when  compared  with  primitive  times,  people  in 
his  day,  since  they  dined  at  noon,  could  not  be  held  to 
fast  at  all.  And  yet  "  the  Church  to  condescend  to 
our  infirmity  "  has  allowed  men  "  to  say  their  evensong 
in  Lent  before  noon,"  in  order  that  they  might  not  break 
their  fast  before  the  vesper  hour.  The  fact  is  that,  in 
More's  opinion,  a  great  deal  of  the  outcry  about  the 
unmortified  lives  of  the  religious  and  clergy  had  "  been 
made  in  Germany  "  by  those  who  desired  to  throw  off 
all  such  regulations  for  themselves.  As  a  Teuton  had 
said  to  him  in  "  Almaine  "  colloquial  English — "  when  I 
blamed  him,"  More  says,  "  for  not  fasting  on  a  certain 
day :  '  Fare  to  sould  te  laye  men  fasten  ?  let  te  prester 
fasten.'  So  we,  God  knows,  begin  to  fast  very  little 
ourselves,  but  bid  the  'prester  to  fasten.'"^ 

"And  as  to  such  mortifications  as  the  wearing  of 
hair  shirts,  it  would  indeed  be  hard  to  bind  men, 
even  priests,  to  do  this,  .  .  .  though  among  them 
many  do  so  already,  and  some  whole  religious  bodies 
too."  If  he  says,  as  he  does,  that  this  "  does  not 
appear,"  what  would  he  have  ?  Would  he  wish  them 
1  Ibid.,  p.  895.  2  ibid_ 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  135 

to  publish  to  the  world  these  penances  ?  If  they 
take  his,  Saint-German's,  advice,  "  they  will  come  out 
of  their  cloisters  every  man  into  the  market-place, 
and  there  kneel  down  in  the  gutters,  and  make  their 
prayers  in  the  open  streets,  and  wear  their  hair  shirts 
over  their  cowls,  and  then  it  shall  appear  and  men 
shall  see  it.  And  truly  in  this  way  there  will  be  no 
hypocrisy  for  their  shirts  of  hair,  and  yet  moreover 
it  will  be  a  good  policy,  for  then  they  will  not  prick 
them."  ' 

In  the  same  way  More  points  out  that  people  in 
talking  against  the  wealth  of  the  clergy  are  not  less 
unreasonable  than  they  are  when  criticising  what  they 
call  their  idle,  easy  lives.  "  Not  indeed  that  we  might 
not  be  able  always  to  find  plenty  content  to  enter 
into  their  possessions,  though  we  could  not  always 
find  men  enough  content  to  enter  their  religions  ; " 
but  when  the  matter  is  probed  to  the  bottom,  and 
it  is  a  question  how  their  wealth  "  would  be  better 
bestowed,"  then  "  such  ways  as  at  the  first  face  seemed 
very  good  and  very  charitable  for  the  comfort  and 
help  of  poor  folk,  appeared  after  reasoning  more  likely 
in  a  short  while  to  make  many  more  beggars  than 
to  relieve  those  that  are  so  already.  And  some  other 
ways  that  at  first  appeared  for  the  greater  advantage 
of  the  realm,  and  likely  to  increase  the  king's  honour 
and  be  a  great  strength  for  the  country,  and  a  great 
security  for  the  prince  as  well  as  a  great  relief  of 
the  people's  charges,  appeared  clearly  after  further 
discussion  to  be  '  clean  contrary,  and  of  all  other 
ways  the  worst.'  " 

"  And  to   say   the   truth,"  he  continues,  "  I   much 

1  Ibid.,  p.  896. 


136      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

marvel  to  see  some  folk  now  speak  so  much  and 
boldly  about  taking  away  any  possessions  of  the 
clergy."  For  though  once  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
IV.,  ''about  the  time  of  a  great  rumble  that  the 
heretics  made,  when  they  would  have  destroyed  not 
only  the  clergy  but  the  king  and  his  nobility  also, 
there  was  a  foolish  and  false  bill  or  two  put  into 
Parliament  and  dismissed  as  they  deserved ;  yet  in 
all  my  time,  when  I  was  conversant  with  the  court, 
I  had  never  found  of  all  the  nobility  of  this  land 
more  than  seven  (of  which  seven  there  are  now  three 
dead)  who  thought  that  it  was  either  right  or  reason- 
able, or  could  be  any  way  profitable  to  the  realm, 
without  lawful  cause  to  take  away  from  the  clergy 
any  of  the  possessions  which  good  and  holy  princes, 
and  other  devout,  virtuous  people,  of  whom  many 
now  are  blessed  saints  in  heaven,  have  of  devotion 
towards  God  given  to  the  clergy  to  serve  God  and 
pray  for  all   Christian  souls."  ^ 

In  his  Confutation  of  Tyndale's  Answer^  made  in 
1532,  when  Sir  Thomas  More  was  still  Lord  Chan- 
cellor of  England,  he  protests  against  imputations 
made  by  his  adversary  and  his  follower  Barnes,  that 
the  clergy  were  as  a  body  corrupt.  ''  Friar  Barnes 
lasheth  out  against  them,  against  their  pride  and 
pomp,  and  all  their  lives  spent  in "  vicious  living, 
"  as  if  there  were  not  a  good  priest  in  all  the  Catholic 
Church.  .  .  .  He  jesteth  on  them  because  they  wear 
crowns  and  long  gowns,  and  the  bishops  wear  rochets. 
And  he  hath  likened  them  to  bulls,  asses,  and  apes, 
and  the  rochets  to  smocks."  "  But  he  forgets  how 
many  good  virtuous   priests    and    religious    people    be 

1  Ibid.,  p.  885. 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  137 

put  out  of  their  places  (in  Germany)  and  spoiled  of 
their  living,  and  beaten,  and  sent  out  a-begging,  while 
heretics  and  apostates,  with  their  women,  keep  their 
shameless  lives  with  the  living  that  holy  folks  have 
dedicated  unto  God  for  the  support  of  such  as  would 
serve  God  in  spiritual  cleanness  and  vowed  chastity. 
He  knows  well  enough,  I  warrant  you,  that  the  clergy 
can  never  lack  persecution  where  heretics  may  grow  ; 
nor  soon  after  the  temporality  either,  as  it  has  hitherto 
been  proved  in  every  such  country  yet."  ^ 

He  will  not  repeat  all  his  "  ribald  railing  upon  all 
the  clergy  of  Christendom  who  will  not  be  heretics  " 
when  he  calls  "  them  bulls,  apes,  asses,  and  abominable 
harlots  and  devils."  .  .  .  "No  good  man  doubts, 
although  among  the  clergy  there  are  many  full  bad 
(as,  indeed,  it  were  hard  to  have  it  otherwise  among 
so  great  a  multitude,  whilst  Christ's  own  twelve  were 
not  without  a  traitor),  that  there  are  again  among 
them  many  right  virtuous  folk,  and  such  that  the  whole 
world  beside  fares  the  better  for  their  holy  living  and 
their  devout  prayer."  ^ 

1  Bishop  Fisher  gives  much  the  same  testimony  to  the  moral  character  of 
the  religious  generally  in  his  sermon  against  Luther.  After  praising  the  state 
of  virginity,  he  continues  :  "  And  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  but  that  there  is  in 
Christendom  at  this  day  many  thousands  of  religious  men  and  women  that  full 
truly  keep  their  religion  and  their  chastity  unto  Christ.  ...  If  Almighty  God 
did  reserve  in  that  little  portion  of  Jewry  so  great  a  multitude  beyond  the  esti- 
mation of  the  prophet,  what  number  suppose  ye  doth  yet  remain  in  Christen- 
dom of  religious  men  and  women,  notwithstanding  this  great  persecution  of 
religious  monasteries,  both  of  men  and  women,  done  by  these  heretics  by  this 
most  execrable  doctrine?  It  is  not  to  be  doubted  but  in  all  Christendom  be 
left  many  thousands  who  at  this  hour  live  chaste,  and  truly  keep  their  virginity 
unto  Christ."    (A  Sermon  had  at  Faith's,  Berthelet,  f.  g.  ii.) 

-  Ibid.,  p.  735.  Sir  Thomas  More,  in  his  Dyalogue,  thinks  that  the 
number  of  priests  without  very  definite  work  had  tended  to  diminish  the 
respect  paid  to  them  by  the  laity.  " But  were  I  Pope,"  he  says,  ...  "I 
could  not  well  devise  better  provisions  than  by  the  laws  of  the  Church  are 
provided  already,  if  they  were  as  well  kept  as  they  are  well  made.     But  as  for 


138      THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

Beyond  the  above  supposed  causes  for  the  growth 
of  the  disHke  of   the  clergy  which   Sir  Thomas   More 
weighs    and    considers    in    the    above    extracts,    Saint- 
German   gives  others   which   are    instructive  as  to  the 
actual  status  of  the  clergy  ;    but  with   which,  as  they 
do  not  reflect  upon  their  moral  character,  Sir  Thomas 
More    was    not    immediately    concerned   in   his   reply. 
One  occasion  of  the  present  difficulties  and   division, 
writes  Saint-German,   "has  partly   arisen  by  temporal 
men  who  have  desired  much  the  familiarity  of  priests 
in  their  games  and  sports,  and  who  were  wont  to  make 
much  more  of  those  who  were  companionable  than  of 
those  that   were    not   so,  and   have   called   them   good 
fellows  and  good  companions.     And  many  also  would 
have  chaplains  which  they  would  not  only  sufifer,  but 
also  command,  to  go  hunting,  hawking,  and  such  other 
vain  disports  ;    and   some   would  let   them  lie   among 
other  lay  servants,  where  they  could  neither  use  prayer 
nor  contemplation." 

Some  even  go  so  far  as  to  insist  on  their  chaplains 
wearing  "  liveries,"  which  "  are  not  convenient  in 
colour  for  a  priest  to  wear."  Others  give  them  worldly 
businesses  to  attend  to  in  the  way  of  stewardships,  &c., 
"  so  that  in  this  way  their  inward  devotion  of  heart  has 
become  as  cold  and  as  weak,  in  a  manner,  as  it  is  in 
lay  men."     Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  the  evil  effect  to 

the  number,  I  would  surely  see  such  a  way  therein  that  we  should  not  have 
such  a  rabble  that  every  mean  man  must  have  a  priest  in  his  house  to  wait  upon 
his  wife.  This  no  mean  man  lacketh  now,  to  the  contempt  of  the  priesthood, 
(placed)  in  as  vile  an  office  as  his  horsekeeper.  That  is  truth  indeed,  quod  he, 
and  in  worse,  too,  for  they  keep  hawks  and  dogs."  If  the  laws  of  the  Church 
were  kept,  there  would  not  be  the  excessive  number  of  priests  for  fit  and 
proper  positions,  so  that  "the  whole  order  is  rebuked  by  the  priests'  begging 
and  lewd  living  who  are  either  obliged  to  walk  as  rovers,  and  live  upon 
trentals  or  worse,  or  serve  in  a  secular  man's  house"  {English  Works, 
p.  223). 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  139 

be  feared  from  this  training,  they  do  not  hesitate  to 
put  them  into  the  first  benefice  they  have  to  dispose 
of  ;  "  and  when  they  have  done  so,  they  will  anon 
speak  evil  of  priests,  and  report  great  lightness  in 
them,  and  lightly  compare  the  faults  of  one  priest 
with  another."  This  they  do  "  even  when  they  them- 
selves have  been  partly  the  occasion  of  their  offences." 

Moreover,  "where  by  the  law  all  priests  ought  to 
be  at  the  (parish)  church  on  Sundays  and  holidays,  and 
help  the  service  of  God  in  the  choir,  and  also,  when 
there,  to  be  under  the  orders  of  the  curate  (or  parish 
priest  of  the  place),  yet  nevertheless  many  men  who 
have  chaplains  will  not  allow  them  to  come  to  the 
parish  church  ;  and  when  they  are  there,  will  not 
suffer  them  to  receive  their  orders  from  the  curate, 
but  only  from  themselves  ;  nor  will  they  tolerate  seeing 
them  in  the  choir  ;  "  and  what  is  the  case  with  "  chap- 
lains and  serving  priests  is  also  (true)  of  chantry  priests 
and  brotherhood  priests  in  many  places." 

To  remedy  these  evils,  Saint-German  thinks,  as 
indeed  every  one  would  be  disposed  to  agree  with  him, 
that  priests  should  be  prohibited  from  hunting  and 
all  such  games  as  are  unsuitable  to  the  priestly  char- 
acter, "  though  perchance  he  may,  as  for  recreation,  use 
honest  disportes  for  a  time."  Moreover,  he  should  not 
"  frequent  the  ale  house  or  tavern,"  and,  if  in  his 
recreations  the  people  are  offended,  he  should  be 
warned  by  "  an  abbot  and  a  justice  of  the  peace  of 
the  shire."  If,  after  this,  he  does  not  change,  he  ought 
to  be  suspended.  Further  than  this,  no  one  should  be 
permitted  to  have  a  chaplain  who  has  not  "  a  standing 
house,"  where  the  priest  is  able  to  have  his  private 
chamber   with    a  lock  and  key,  so  that  "  he  may  use 


140      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

himself  therein  conveniently  in  reading,  prayer,  or 
contemplation,  or  such  other  labours  and  business  as 
it  is  convenient  for  a  priest  to  use."  ^ 

Both  in  his  work  on  the  Division  and  in  his  previous 
tract,  A  Dyalogue  between  a  Student  of  Law  and  a  Doctor  of 
Divinity,  Saint-German  lays  great  stress  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  mortuaries,  as  one  that  gave  great  offence  to 
lay  people  at  the  period  when  he  wrote.  As  he  ex- 
plained in  the  Dyalogue,  the  State  had  already  interfered 
to  regulate  the  exactions  made  by  custom  at  funerals, 
but  nevertheless  "  in  some  places  the  Church  claims 
to  have  the  taper  that  stands  in  the  middle  of  the 
hearse  over  the  heart  of  the  corpse,  and  some  claim 
to  have  all  the  tapers.  Some  also  claim  to  have  one 
of  the  torches  that  is  about  the  hearse,  and  others  to 
have  all  the  torches.  And  if  the  body  be  brought  in 
a  charette  or  with  coat  armour  or  such  other  (orna- 
ments), then  they  claim  all  the  horses  and  charette 
and  the  apparel  or  part  thereof."  ^  Now,  in  his  other 
book,  Saint-German  thinks  that  though  these  things 
''  are  annulled  already  by  statute,"  there  is  rising 
up  "  a  thing  concerning  mortuaries,"  that  "  if  it  be 
allowed  to  continue "  will  cause  great  difficulties  in 
the  near  future.  It  is  this  :  "  Many  curates  not  re- 
garding the  king's  statute  in  that  behalf,  persuade  their 
parishioners  when  they  are  sick  to  believe  that  they 
cannot  be  saved  unless  they  restore  them  as  much 
as  the  old  mortuary  would  have  amounted  to."  All 
those  who  act  in  such  a  way  are,  he  thinks,  "bound 
in  conscience  to  restitution,  since  they  have  obtained 
money  under  false  information."  ^ 

1  A  treatise  concerning  the  division,  ff.  14-16. 

-  Dyalogue,  Sec,  f.  2. 

■'  A  treatise  concerning  the  division,  f.  23. 


CLERGY  AND   LAITY  141 

After  arguing  that  Parliament  has  a  right  to  legis- 
late in  all  matters  concerning  goods  and  property,  our 
author  says :  "  It  is  certain  that  all  such  mortuaries 
were  temporal  goods,  though  they  were  claimed  by 
spiritual  men ;  and  the  cause  why  they  were  taken 
away  was,  because  there  were  few  things  within  this 
realm  which  caused  more  variance  among  the  people 
than  they  did,  when  they  were  allowed.  They  were 
taken  so  far  against  the  king's  laws  and  against  justice 
and  right,  as  shall  hereafter  appear.  First  they  were 
taken  not  only  after  the  husband's  death,  but  also  after 
the  death  of  the  wife,  who  by  the  law  of  the  realm  had 
no  goods,  but  what  were  the  husband's.  They  were 
taken  also  from  servants  and  children,  as  well  infants 
as  others  ;  and  if  a  man  died  on  a  journey  and  had  a 
household,  he  should  pay  mortuaries  in  both  places." 
Whilst  in  some  places  both  the  parson  and  the  vicar 
claimed  the  mortuary  ;  "  and  sometime  even  the  curate 
{i.e.  parish  priest)  would  prohibit  poor  men  to  sell 
their  goods,  as  were  likely  to  come  to  them  as  mor- 
tuaries, for  they  would  say  it  was  done  in  order  to 
defraud  the  Church."  And  the  mortuaries  had  to  be 
handed  over  at  once,  or  they  would  not  bury  the  body. 
All  these  things  led  to  the  great  growth  of  mortuaries 
*'by  the  prescription  of  the  spiritual  law,  and  had  they 
not  been  put  an  end  to  by  Parliament  they  would  have 
grown  more  and  more. 

"  And  in  many  places  they  were  taken  in  such  a 
way  that  it  made  the  people  think  that  their  curates 
loved  their  mortuaries  better  than  their  lives.  For  this 
reason  there  rose  in  many  places  great  division  and 
grudge  between  them,  which  caused  a  breach  of  the 
peace,  love,  and  charity  that  ought  to  be  between  the 


142      THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

curate  and  his  parishioners,  to  the  great  unquietness  of 
many  of  the  king's  subjects,  as  well  spiritual  as  tem- 
poral, and  to  the  great  danger  and  peril  of  their  souls. 
For  these  causes  the  said  mortuaries  be  annulled  by 
Parliament,  as  well  in  conscience  as  in  law,  and  yet  it 
is  said  that  some  curates  use  great  extremities  concern- 
ing the  said  mortuaries  another  way  ;  and  that  is  this : 
If  at  the  first  request  the  executor  pay  not  the  money 
that  is  appointed  by  the  statute,  they  will  anon  have  a 
citation  against  him,  and  in  this  he  shall  be  so  handled 
that,  as  it  is  said,  it  would  have  been  generally  much 
better  for  him  to  have  paid  the  old  mortuary,  than  the 
costs  and  expenses  he  will  then  have  to  pay."  ^ 

Another  fertile  cause  of  complaint  against  the  clergy 
at  this  time  was,  in  Saint-German's  opinion,  the  way  in 
which  tithes  were  exacted  ;  in  many  cases  without  much 
consideration  for  justice  and  reason.  "  In  some  places, 
the  curates  all  exact  their  tenth  of  everything  within 
the  parish  that  is  subject  to  tithe,  although  their  prede- 
cessors from  time  immemorial  have  been  contented  to 
do  without  it:  and  this  even  though  there  is  sufficient 
besides  for  the  curates  to  live  upon,  and  though  per- 
chance in  old  time  something  else  has  been  assigned  in 
place  of  it.  In  some  places  there  has  been  asked,  it  is 
said,  tithe  of  both  chickens  and  eggs  ;  in  some  places 
of  milk  and  cheese  ;  and  in  some  others  tithe  of  the 
ground  and  also  of  all  that  falleth  to  the  ground.  In 
other  places  tithes  of  servants'  wages  is  claimed  without 
any  deduction  ;  and  indeed  it  is  in  but  few  places  that 
any  servant  shall  go  quite  without  some  payment  of 
tithe,  though  he  may  have  spent  all  in  sickness,  or  upon 
his  father  and  mother,  or  such  necessary  expenses." 

1  Ibid.,  f.  25. 


CLERGY  AND   LAITY  143 

Our  author,  from  whom  we  get  so  much  informa- 
tion as  to  the  relations  which  existed  in  pre-Reformation 
times  between  the  clergy  and  people,  goes  on  to  give 
additional  instances  of  the  possible  hardships  incidental 
to  the  collection  of  the  ecclesiastical  dues.  These, 
where  they  exist,  he,  no  doubt  rightly,  thinks  do  not 
tend  to  a  good  understanding  between  those  who  have 
the  cure  of  souls,  and  who  ought  to  be  regarded  rather 
in  the  light  of  spiritual  fathers,  than  of  worldly  tax  col- 
lectors. He  admits,  however,  that  these  are  the  abuses 
of  the  few,  and  must  not  be  considered  as  universally 
true  of  all  the  clergy.  "  And  though,"  he  concludes, 
"  these  abusions  are  not  used  universally  (God  for- 
bid that  they  should),  for  there  are  many  good  curates 
and  other  spiritual  men  that  would  not  use  them  to  win 
any  earthly  thing,  yet  when  people  of  divers  countries 
meet  together,  and  one  tells  another  of  some  such 
extremity  used  by  some  curates  in  his  country,  and  the 
other  in  like  manner  to  him,  soon  they  come  to  think 
that  such  covetousness  and  harsh  dealing  is  common  to 
all  curates.  And  although  they  do  not  well  in  so  doing, 
for  the  offence  of  one  priest  is  no  offence  of  any  other, 
if  they  will  so  take  it :  yet  spiritual  men  themselves  do 
nothing  to  bring  the  people  out  of  this  judgment  ;  but 
allow  these  abuses  to  be  used  by  some  without  correct- 
ing them."  ^ 

To  these  objections,  and  more  of  the  same  kind.  Sir 
Thomas  More  did  not  make,  and  apparently  did  not 
think  it  at  all  necessary  to  make,  any  formal  reply. 
Indeed,  he  probably  considered  that  where  such  things 
could  be  proved  it  would  be  both  just  and  politic  to 
correct  them.      His  failing  to  reply  on  this  score,  how- 

1  Ibid.,  f.  26. 


144      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

ever,  seems  to  have  been  interpreted  by  Saint-German 
as  meaning  his  rejection  of  all  blame  attaching  to  the 
clerical  profession  in  these  matters.  In  the  Deballacion 
of  Salem  and  Byzance,  More  protests  that  this  is  not  his 
meaning  at  all.  "  He  says,"  writes  he,  "  that  I,  in  my 
mind,  prove  it  to  be  an  intolerable  fault  in  the  people 
to  misjudge  the  clergy,  since  I  think  they  have  no 
cause  so  to  do,  and  that  there  I  leave  them,  as  if  all  the 
whole  cause  and  principal  fault  was  in  the  temporality." 
This,  More  declares  he  never  dreamed  of,  for  "  if  he 
seek  these  seven  years  in  all  my  Apology^  he  shall  find 
you  no  such  words "  to  justify  this  view.  On  the 
contrary,  he  will  find  that  "  I  say  in  those  places,  '  that 
the  people  are  too  reasonable  to  take  this  or  that  thing ' 
amiss  for  'any  reasonable  cause  of  division.'"^  The 
fact  is,  "  I  have  never  either  laid  the  principal  fault  to 
the  one  or  to  the  other."  To  much  that  Saint-German 
said,  More  assented  ;  and  his  general  attitude  to  the 
general  accusations  he  states  in  these  words  :  "  Many 
of  them  I  will  pass  over  untouched,  both  because  most 
of  them  are  such  as  every  wise  man  will,  I  suppose, 
answer  them  himself  in  the  reading,  and  satisfy  his  own 
mind  without  any  need  of  my  help  therein,  and  because 
some  things  are  there  also  very  well  said." 

Reading  the  four  books  referred  to  above  together, 
one  is  forced  to  the  conviction  that  the  description  of 
Sir  Thomas  More  really  represents  the  state  of  the 
clergy  as  it  then  was.  That  there  were  bad  as  well  as 
good  may  be  taken  for  granted,  even  without  the 
admissions  of  More,  but  that  as  a  body  the  clergy, 
secular  or  religious,  were  as  hopelessly  bad  as  subse- 
quent  writers   have    so    often    asked    their    readers   to 

^  English  Works,  p.  936. 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  145 

believe,  or  even  that  they  were  as  bad  as  the  reports, 
started  chiefly  by  Lutheran  emissaries,  who  were 
striving  to  plough  up  the  soil  in  order  to  implant  the 
new  German  teachings  in  the  place  of  the  old  religious 
faith  of  England,  would  make  out,  is  disproved  by  the 
tracts  of  both  Saint-German  and  Sir  Thomas  More.  In 
such  a  discussion  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  the 
worst  would  have  appeared.  Had  the  former  any 
evidence  of  general  and  hopeless  corruption  he  would, 
when  pressed  by  his  adversary,  have  brought  it  forward. 
Had  the  latter — whose  honesty  and  full  knowledge  must 
be  admitted  by  all — any  suspicion  of  what  later  genera- 
tions have  been  asked  to  believe  as  the  true  picture  of 
ecclesiastical  life  in  pre-Reformation  England,  he  would 
not  have  dared,  even  if  his  irreproachable  integrity 
would  have  permitted  him,  to  reject  as  a  caricature 
and  a  libel  even  Christopher  Saint-German's  moderate 
picture. 

In  one  particular  More  categorically  denies  a  charge 
made  by  Tyndale  against  the  clergy  in  general,  and 
against  the  Popes  for  permitting  so  deplorable  a  state  of 
things  in  regard  to  clerical  morals.  As  the  charge  first 
suggested  by  Tyndale  has  been  repeated  very  frequently 
down  to  our  own  time,  it  is  useful  to  give  the  evidence 
of  so  unexceptional  authority  as  that  of  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor of  England.  Tyndale  declared  that  although  mar- 
riage was  prohibited  by  ecclesiastical  law  to  the  clergy 
of  the  Western  Church,  the  Pope  granted  leave  "  unto 
as  many  as  bring  money"  to  keep  concubines.  And 
after  asserting  that  this  was  the  case  in  Germany,  Wales, 
Ireland,  &c.,  he  adds,  "  And  in  England  thereto  they 
be  not  few  who  have  (this)  licence — some  of  the  Pope, 
and   some   of   their   ordinaries."      To   this    More   says  : 

K 


146      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

"We  have  had  many  pardons  come  hither,  and  many 
dispensations  and  many  licences  too,  but  yet  I  thank 
our  Lord  I  never  knew  none  such,  nor  I  trust  never 
shall,  nor  Tyndale,  I  trow  either  ;  but  that  he  listeth 
loud  to  lie.  And  as  for  his  licences  customably  given 
by  the  ordinaries,  I  trust  he  lies  in  regard  to  other 
countries,  for  as  for  England  I  am  sure  he  lies."^ 

It  would  of  course  be  untrue  to  suggest  that  there 
were  no  grounds  whatever  for  objection  to  the  clerical 
life  of  the  period.  At  all  times  the  ministers  of  the 
Church  of  God  are  but  human  instruments,  manifesting 
now  more  now  less  the  human  infirmities  of  their  nature. 
A  passage  in  a  sermon  preached  by  Bishop  Longland  of 
Lincoln  in  1538  suggests  that  the  most  crying  abuse 
among  the  clergy  of  that  time  was  simony.  ''  Yet  there 
is  one  thing,  or  ill  which  the  prophet  saw  not  in  this 
city  (of  Sodom).  What  is  that  ?  That  which  specially 
above  other  things  should  have  been  seen.  What  is  it  ? 
That  which  most  is  abused  in  this  world.  I  pray  thee, 
what  is  it  ?  Make  no  more  ado  :  tell  it.  That  which 
almost  destroyed  the  Church  of  Christ.  Then,  I  pray 
thee,  shew  it  :  shew  what  it  is :  let  it  be  known,  that 
remedy  may  be  had  and  the  thing  holpen.  What  is  it  ? 
Forsooth  it  is  simony,  simony :  chapping  and  changing, 
buying  and  selling  of  benefices  and  of  spiritual  gifts  and 
promotions.  And  no  better  merchandise  is  nowadays 
than  to  procure  advowsons  of  patrons  for  benefices,  for 
prebends,  for  other  spiritual  livelihood,  whether  it  be  by 
suit,  request,  by  letters,  by  money  bargain  or  otherwise  : 
yea,  whether  it  be  to  buy  them  or  to  sell  them,  thou 
shalt  have  merchants  plenty,  merchants  enough  for  it. 

"These  advowsons  are  abroad  here  in  this  city.     In 

^  English  Works,  p.  620. 


CLERGY  AND   LAITY  147 

which  city  ?  In  most  part  of  all  the  great  cities  of  this 
realm.  In  the  shops,  in  the  streets,  a  common  mer- 
chandise. And  they  that  do  come  by  their  benefices  or 
promotions  under  such  a  manner  shall  never  have  grace 
of  God  to  profit  the  Church."^ 

It  is  interesting  to  recall  the  fact  that  the  late  Mr. 
Brewer,  whose  intimate  knowledge  of  this  period  of  our 
national  history  is  admitted  on  all  hands,  arrived,  after 
the  fullest  investigation,  at  a  similar  conclusion  as  to 
the  real  state  of  the  Church  in  pre-Reformation  England. 
Taking  first  the  religious  houses,  this  high  authority 
considers  that  no  doubt  many  circumstances  had  con- 
tributed at  this  time  to  lower  the  tone  of  religious 
discipline  ;  but  taking  a  broad  survey,  the  following  is 
the  historian's  verdict :  "  That  in  so  large  a  body  of 
men,  so  widely  dispersed,  seated  for  so  many  centuries 
in  the  richest  and  fairest  estates  of  England,  for  which 
they  were  mainly  indebted  to  their  own  skill,  persever- 
ance, and  industry,  discreditable  members  were  to  be 
found  (and  what  literary  chiffonnier,  raking  in  the 
scandalous  annals  of  any  profession,  cannot  find  filth 
and  corruption  ?)  is  likely  enough,  but  that  the  corrup- 
tion was  either  so  black  or  so  general  as  party  spirit 
would  have  us  believe,  is  contrary  to  all  analogy,  and  is 
unsupported  by  impartial  and  contemporary  evidence."  ^ 

"  It  is  impossible,"  he  says  in  another  place,  "  that 
the  clergy  can  have  been  universally  immoral  and  the 
laity  have  remained  sound,  temperate,  and  loyal." 
This,  by  the  way,  is  exactly  what  More,  who  lived  in 
the  period,  insisted  upon. 

"  But,"   continues   Brewer,  "  if  these  general   argu- 

^  A  Sermonde  .  .  .  made  in  1538.    By  John  Longlande,  Bishop  of  Lincolne. 
London  :  f.  2. 

-  Henry  VIII.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  50-1. 


148      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

ments  are  not  sufficient,  I  refer  my  readers  to  a  very 
curious  document,  dated  the  8th  of  July  15 19,  when  a 
search  was  instituted  by  different  commissioners  on  a 
Sunday  night,  in  London  and  its  suburbs,  for  all 
suspected  and  disorderly  persons.  I  fear  no  parish  in 
London,  nor  any  town  in  the  United  Kingdom,  of  the 
same  amount  of  population,  would  at  this  day  pass  a 
similar  ordeal  with  equal  credit."^  And  in  another 
place  he  sums  up  the  question  in  these  words  :  "  Con- 
sidering the  temper  of  the  English  people,  it  is  not 
probable  that  immorality  could  have  existed  among 
the  ancient  clergy  to  the  degree  which  the  exaggera- 
tion of  poets,  preachers,  and  satirists  might  lead  us  to 
suppose.  The  existence  of  such  corruption  is  not 
justified  by  authentic  documents  or  by  any  impartial 
and  broad  estimate  of  the  character  and  conduct  of  the 
nation  before  the  Reformation.  If  these  complaints  of 
preachers  and  moralists  are  to  be  accepted  as  authori- 
tative on  this  head,  there  would  be  no  difficulty  in 
producing  abundant  evidence  from  the  Reformers 
themselves  that  the  abuses  and  enormities  of  their 
own  age,  under  Edward  VI.  and  Elizabeth,  were  far 
greater  than  in  the  ages  preceding."  ^ 

It  is  too  often  assumed  that  in  the  choice  and 
education  of  the  clergy  little  care  and  discretion  was 
exercised  by  the  bishops  and  other  responsible  officials, 
and  that  thus  those  unfit  for  the  sacred  ministry  by 
education  and  character  often  found  their  way  into  the 
priesthood.  In  the  last  Convocation  held  on  the  eve  of 
the  Reformation  a  serious  attempt  was  evidently  made 
to  correct  whatever  abuses  existed  in  this  matter,  when 
it  was  enacted  that  no  bishop  might  ordain  any  subject 

1  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  600.  -  Ibid.,  ii.  p.  470. 


CLERGY  AND   LAITY  149 

not  born  in  his  diocese  or  beneficed  in  it,  or  without  a 
domicile  in  it  for  three  months,  even  with  dimissorial 
letters.  Further,  that  no  secular  clerk  should  be  ordained 
without  testimonial  letters  as  to  character  from  the 
parish  priest  of  the  place  where  he  was  born  or  had 
lived  for  three  years,  sealed  by  the  archdeacon  of  the 
district,  or  in  the  case  of  a  university,  by  the  seal  of  the 
vice-chancellor.  No  one  whatsoever  was  to  be  admitted 
to  the  subdiaconate  "who  was  not  so  versed  in  the 
Epistles  and  Gospels,  at  least  those  contained  in  the 
Missal,  as  to  be  able  at  once  to  explain  their  gram- 
matical meaning  to  the  examiner."  He  must  also  show 
that  he  understands  and  knows  whatever  pertains  to  his 
office.^ 

The  most  important  book  of  this  period  dealing 
with  the  life  and  education  of  the  clergy  is  a  tract 
printed  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde  about  the  beginning  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  It  was  written  by  William  de 
Melton,  Chancellor  of  York,  and  at  the  end  is  the 
declaration  of  Colet,  that  he  has  read  it  and  highly 
approves  of  its  contents.^  The  author  states  that  he 
desires  to  instruct  the  "  many  young  men  "  who  every 
Ember  time  come  up  to  York  for  ordination  in  their 
duties.  No  person,  he  says,  ought  to  present  himself 
to  receive  the  priesthood  who  is  not  prepared  to  lead 
a  life  in  all  things  worthy  of  the  sacred  ministry. 
He  should  remember  that  he  is  really  to  be  accounted 
one  of  the  twelve  who  sat  with  our  Lord  at  His  last 
supper.  He  must  be  sufficiently  versed  in  the  learn- 
ing of  the  world  not  to  dishonour  the  priestly  caUing, 
and    above    all    be    taught    in    His    school    "who    has 

1  Wilkins,  Concilia,  iii.  717. 

-  Serino  Exhortatoritis,  VV.  de  Worde. 


I50      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

said,   '  Learn   of    Me,   for    I    am    meek   and  humble   of 
heart.'  " 

"And  since  I  am  now  on  the  question  of  those  only 
partly  well  learned,"  continues  the  author,  "  I  wish 
all  coming  for  ordination  to  understand  that  always 
and  everywhere  those  who  have  not  yet  attained  to 
at  least  a  fair  knowledge  of  good  letters  are  to  be 
rejected  as  candidates  for  Holy  Orders.  They  can 
in  no  way  be  considered  to  have  a  fair  knowledge  of 
letters  who,  though  skilful  in  grammar,  do  not  possess 
the  science  well  enough  to  read  promptly  and  easily 
Latin  books,  and  above  all,  the  sacred  Scriptures, 
and  expound  their  meaning  and  the  literal  significa- 
tion of  the  words  as  they  stand  in  the  books  ;  and 
this  not  haltingly,  but  readily  and  easily,  so  as  to  show 
that  they  know  the  language  not  merely  slightly  and 
slenderly,  but  that  they  possess  a  full  and  radical 
knowledge  of  it  and  its  construction.  Therefore,  those 
who  read  the  sacred  Scriptures  or  other  Latin  work 
with  difficulty,  or,  whilst  reading,  often  mistake  the 
proper  connection  of  the  words,  or  read  them  with 
such  pauses  as  to  seem  not  to  be  used  to  the  Latin 
language,  are  to  be  refused  Sacred  Orders  until,  by 
diligent  study,  they  have  become  more  skilled  in  their 
letters." 

In  the  same  way  the  tract  goes  on  to  declare  that 
those  who  are  unable  to  explain  or  understand  the 
spiritual  signification  of  Scripture  are  to  be  refused 
ordination  to  the  sacred  ministry  until  they  show 
themselves  at  least  fairly  well  able  to  do  so.  "  To  be 
reckoned  among  even  the  fairly  proficient,  we  require," 
says  the  author,  "  such  a  thorough  and  sure  foundation 
of  grammatical  knowledge  that  there  may  be  hopes  that 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  151 

alone  and  without  other  teachers  they  may,  from  books 
and  dihgent  study,  endeavour  day  by  day  to  improve 
themselves  by  reading  and  study."  Then  addressing 
the  candidates  the  author  begs  them,  if  they  feel  they 
have  not  this  necessary  foundation,  "  not  through  mere 
presumption  to  offer  themselves  to  the  examiners." 
"  Seek  not  a  position  in  the  Church  of  God  in  which 
neither  now  nor  during  your  whole  life  will  you  be 
able  to  show  yourself  a  fitting  minister.  For  those 
who  before  taking  Holy  Orders  have  not  fitted  them- 
selves fairly  well  in  learning  rarely  if  ever  are  seen  to 
make  progress  in  literature.  On  the  contrary,  they 
ever  remain,  even  to  old  age,  dunces  and  stupid,  and, 
furthermore,  such  priests  known  to  the  common  people 
for  such  manifest  ignorance  are  a  great  scandal  which 
involves  the  whole  sacred  ministry." 

Great  damage  is  done  to  the  whole  Church  of  God 
through  the  ignorance  of  the  clergy.  Both  in  towns 
and  country  places  there  are  priests  who  occupy  them- 
selves, some  in  mean  and  servile  work,  some  who  give 
themselves  to  tavern  drinking  ;  the  former  can  hardly 
help  mixing  themselves  up  with  women,  the  latter 
employ  their  time  in  games  of  dice,  &c.,  and  some  of 
them  pass  it  in  the  vanities  of  hunting  and  hawking. 
Thus  do  they  spend  their  whole  lives  to  extreme  old 
age  in  idleness  and  non-religious  occupations.  Nor 
could  they  do  otherwise,  for  as  they  are  quite  ignorant 
of  good  letters,  how  can  they  be  expected  to  work  at 
and  take  a  pleasure  in  reading  and  study  ;  rather 
throwing  away  these  despised  and  neglected  books,  they 
turn  to  that  kind  of  miserable  and  unpriestly  life  de- 
scribed above,  hoping  to  kill  time  and  cure  their  dulness 
by  such  things. 


152      THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

He  then  goes  on  to  exhort  the  young  to  implant 
in  their  hearts  a  strong  desire  to  study  deeply  in  the 
books  of  God's  Law  rather  than  to  be  tainted  thus  by 
the  stains  and  vanities  of  the  world  which  they  were 
supposed  to  have  left.  "  It  is,"  he  continues,  "  im- 
possible that  such  a  holy  desire  should  possess  you, 
unless  you  have  made  progress  in  such  studies  before 
taking  Holy  Orders,  and  are  so  advanced  in  your  literary 
studies  that  the  reading  of  many  books  is  both  easy 
and  pleasant  to  you,  and  the  construction  of  the  mean- 
ing of  a  passage  no  longer  difficult,  but  whilst  reading 
you  may  quickly  and  easily  follow  at  least  the  literal 
sense  of  the  sentence." 

This  interesting  tract  then  goes  on  to  warn  sub- 
deacons  not  to  take  upon  themselves  the  perpetual 
obligations  of  Sacred  Orders  unless  they  are  conscious 
to  themselves  of  no  reason  or  objection,  however  secret 
and  hidden,  which  may  stand  in  the  way  of  their  faith- 
fully keeping  their  promises.  They  must  feel  that  they 
enter  the  ranks  of  the  clergy  only  from  the  motive  of 
serving  God.  Then,  after  warning  the  clergy  against 
the  vices  which  specially  detract  from  the  sacred  char- 
acter of  the  priesthood,  the  author  continues,  "  Let 
us  therefore  turn  to  study,  reading,  and  meditation  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures  as  the  best  remedy  against  un- 
worthy sloth  and  fooHsh  desires.  Let  us  not  consume 
the  time  given  us  uselessly  and  fruitlessly."  A  priest 
should  say  his  Hours  and  Mass  daily.  He  should 
spend  the  morning  till  mid-day  in  choir  and  other 
works,  and  even  then  not  think  he  has  fulfilled  the 
whole  duty  of  the  priesthood.  A  priest  is  bound  to 
serious  studies  and  meditation.  "Constant  reading 
and    meditation    of    the  books  of  God's   law    and    the 


CLERGY  AND  LAITY  153 

writings  of  the  holy  Fathers  and  Doctors  are  the  best 
remedy  for  slothful  habits,"  and  these  have  been  put 
at  the  disposition  of  all  through  the  printing-press. 
Just  as  a  workman  has  besides  his  shop  a  workroom 
where  he  has  to  spend  hours  preparing  the  wares  that 
he  offers  for  sale,  so  the  priest,  who  in  the  church  on 
Sunday  offers  his  people  the  things  necessary  for  salva- 
tion, should  spend  days  and  nights  in  holy  reading  and 
study  in  order  to  make  them  his  own  before  he  hands 
them  on  to  others.  "  Wherefore,  my  dearest  brethren, 
let  us  think  ourselves  proper  priests  only  when  we  find 
our  delight  and  joy  in  the  constant  study  of  Holy 
Scripture." 

So  much  for  the  important  advice  given  to  priests 
or  those  intending  to  be  priests  as  to  the  necessity  of 
acquiring  previous  habits  of  study.  Not  infrequently 
the  fact  that  in  1532  Parliament  did  actually  transfer 
the  power  of  ecclesiastical  legislation  hitherto  possessed 
by  Convocation  to  the  Crown,  is  adduced  as  proof  that 
to  the  nation  at  large  the  powers  of  the  clergy,  for  a 
long  time  resented,  had  at  length  become  a  yoke  not 
to  be  borne.  Yet  it  is  clear  that  the  policy  of  the  king 
to  crush  the  clergy  in  this  way  was  by  no  means  heartily 
supported  by  the  Commons.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
whatever  that  the  petition  of  the  Commons  against  the 
spirituality  really  emanated  from  the  Court,  and  that  the 
Lower  House  was  compelled  by  direct  royal  influence  to 
take  the  course  indicated  by  royal  will.  Four  drafts 
of  the  petition  existing  among  the  State  papers  in  the 
Record  Office  put  this  beyond  doubt,  as  they  are  all 
corrected  in  the  well-known  hand  of  Henry's  adviser  at 
this  time,  Thomas  Crumwell.  The  substance  of  the 
petition    states    that    on    account    of    the    diffusion    of 


154      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

heretical  books,  and  the  action  of  the  bishops  in  spiri- 
tual courts,  '*  much  discord  had  arisen  between  the 
clergy  and  the  laity  at  large."  The  answer  of  the 
bishops  denies  all  knowledge  of  this  discord,  at  least 
on  their  parts.  The  ordinaries,  they  said,  exercised 
spiritual  jurisdiction,  and  no  one  might  interfere  in 
that,  as  their  right  to  make  laws  in  this  sphere  was 
from  God,  and  could  be  proved  by  Scripture.  The 
two  jurisdictions  could  not  clash  as  they  were  derived 
from  the  same  source,  namely,  the  authority  given  by 
God.  Finally,  they  practically  refused  to  consider  the 
possibility  of  any  just  royal  interference  in  matters  of 
the  purely  ecclesiastical  domain.  Their  resistance  was, 
of  course,  as  we  know,  of  no  avail  ;  but  the  incident 
shows  that  up  to  the  very  eve  of  the  changes  the  clergy 
had  no  notion  of  any  surrender  of  their  spiritual  pre- 
rogatives, and  that  it  was  the  Crown  and  not  the 
Commons  that  was  hostile  to  them.^ 

^  Gairdner,  Calendar  of  Papers  Foreign  and  Domestic,  v.,  preface,  ix. 


CHAPTER    VI 

ERASMUS 

During  the  first  portion  of  the  sixteenth  century 
Erasmus  occupied  a  unique  position  in  Europe.  He 
was  beyond  question  the  most  remarkable  outcome  of 
the  renaissance  in  its  hterary  aspect ;  and  he  may  fairly 
be  taken  as  a  type  of  the  critical  attitude  of  mind  in 
which  many  even  of  the  best  and  the  most  loyal 
Catholics  of  the  day  approached  the  consideration  of 
the  serious  religious  problems  which  were,  at  that  time, 
forcing  themselves  upon  the  notice  of  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities.  Such  men  held  that  the  best  service  a  true 
son  of  the  Church  could  give  to  religion  was  the  service 
of  a  trained  mind,  ready  to  face  facts  as  they  were,  con- 
vinced that  the  Christian  faith  had  nothing  to  lose  by 
the  fullest  light  and  the  freest  investigation,  but  at  the 
same  time  protesting  that  they  would  suffer  no  suspicion 
to  rest  on  their  entire  loyalty  of  heart  to  the  authority 
of  the  teaching  Church. 

Keenly  alive  to  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  age,  and 
to  what  he,  in  common  with  many  others  of  the  time, 
considered  crying  abuses  in  the  government  of  the 
Church,  resulting  from  the  excessive  temporal  grandeur 
of  ecclesiastics  engaged  in  secular  sovereignty  and 
government,  Erasmus,  like  many  of  his  contemporaries, 
is  often  perhaps  injudicious  in  the  manner  in  which  he 
advocated  reforms.     But  when  the  matter  is  sifted  to 


156      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

the  bottom,  it  will  commonly  be  found  that  his  ideas 
are  just.  He  clamoured  loudly  and  fearlessly  for  the 
proper  enforcing  of  ecclesiastical  discipHne,  and  for  a 
complete  change  in  the  stereotyped  modes  of  teaching  ; 
and  he  proclaimed  the  need  of  a  thorough  literary 
education  for  Churchmen  as  the  best  corrective  of  what 
he  held  to  be  the  narrowing  formalism  of  mediaeval 
scholastic  training.  It  is,  perhaps,  hardly  wonderful 
that  his  general  attitude  in  these  matters  should  have 
been  misunderstood  and  exaggerated.  By  many  of 
his  Catholic  contemporaries  he  was  looked  upon  as  a 
secret  rebel  against  received  authority,  and  in  truth  as 
the  real  intellectual  force  of  the  whole  Lutheran  move- 
ment. By  the  Reformers  themselves,  regarded  as  at 
heart  belonging  to  them,  he  was  upbraided  as  a  coward, 
and  spoken  of  as  one  who  had  not  the  courage  of  his 
convictions.  Posterity  has  represented  him  now  in 
the  one  aspect,  now  in  the  other,  now  as  at  best  a 
lukewarm  Catholic,  now  as  a  secret  and  dangerous 
heretic.  By  most  Catholics  probably  he  has  been 
regarded  as  a  Reformer,  as  pronounced  even  as  Luther 
himself  ;  or  to  use  the  familiar  phrase  founded  upon  an 
expression  of  his  own,  they  considered  that  "his  was 
the  egg  which  Luther  hatched."  Few  writers  have 
endeavoured  to  read  any  meaning  into  his  seemingly 
paradoxical  position  by  reference  to  his  own  explana- 
tions, or  by  viewing  it  in  the  light  of  the  peculiar  cir- 
cumstances of  the  times  in  which  he  lived,  and  which 
are,  to  some  extent  at  least,  responsible  for  it. 

Desiderius  Erasmus  was  born  at  Rotterdam,  in  the 
year  1467.  His  father's  Christian  name  was  Gerhard, 
of  which  Desiderius  was  intended  for  the  Latin,  and 
Erasmus  for  the  Greek,  equivalent.     Other  surname  he 


ERASMUS  157 

had  none,  as  he  was  born  out  of  wedlock ;  but  his 
father  adopted  the  responsibility  of  his  education,  for 
which  he  provided  by  placing  him  first  as  a  chorister  in 
the  cathedral  of  Utrecht,  and  subsequently  by  sending 
him  to  Deventer,  then  one  of  the  best  schools  in 
Northern  Europe.  Deventer  was  at  that  time  presided 
over  by  the  learned  scholar  and  teacher  Alexander 
Hegius,  and  amongst  his  fellow-students  there,  Erasmus 
found  several  youths  who  subsequently,  as  men,  won 
for  themselves  renown  in  the  learned  world.  One  of 
them,  under  the  title  of  Adrian  VI.,  subsequently  occu- 
pied the  Papal  chair. 

His  father  and  mother  both  died  of  the  plague 
whilst  Erasmus  was  still  young.  At  the  age  of  thirteen 
he  was  taken  from  Deventer  by  the  three  guardians  to 
whose  charge  he  had  been  committed,  and  sent  to  a 
purely  ecclesiastical  school,  meant  to  prepare  those 
intended  only  for  a  life  in  the  cloister.  Here  he 
remained  for  three  years,  and  after  having  for  a  con- 
siderable time  resisted  the  suggestions  of  his  masters 
that  he  should  join  their  Order,  he  finally  entered  the 
novitiate  of  the  Canons  Regular  of  St.  Augustine  at 
Stein,  near  Gouda.  Here  he  was  professed  at  the  age 
of  nineteen,  and  after  the  usual  interval  was  ordained 
priest. 

Much  obscurity  and  many  apparent  contradictions 
prevent  us  fully  understanding  Erasmus's  early  life,  and 
in  particular  the  portion  spent  by  him  in  the  cloister. 
One  thing,  however,  would  seem  to  be  quite  clear  ;  he 
could  never  have  had  any  vocation  for  the  religious  life. 
His  whole  subsequent  history  shows  this  unmistakeably  ;. 
and  the  ill-judged  zeal  of  those  who  practically  forced 
him    into    a    state    for    which     he    was    constitution- 


158      THE   EVE   OF  THE   REFORMATION 

ally    unfitted,    and    for   which    he   had    no    aptitude    or 
inclination,   must,   if  we  take  his   account  of  the  facts 
as    correct,  be    as   strongly   condemned    by   all    right- 
thinking  people  as  by  himself.      He,  however,  appears 
not   to   have    understood   that   this    may    have   been   a 
special  case,  and  not  the  usual  lot  of  youths  entering 
religion.     One  evident  result  of  his   experience  is  the 
bitter  feeling  created  in  his  heart  towards  the  religious 
Orders  and  the  uncompromising  hostility  he  ever  after 
displayed  towards  them.      In  the    celebrated  letter    he 
wrote  to  the  papal  secretary,  Lambert  Grunnius,  which 
was    intended   for   the    information    of   the   Pope  him- 
self, and  which  is  supposed  to  describe  his  own  case, 
Erasmus  justly  condemns  in  the  strongest  language  the 
practice  of  enticing  youths  into  the  cloister  before  they 
were    fully    aware    of    what    they   were    doing.     If   we 
are    to    believe    the    statements    made    in    that    letter, 
Erasmus   did   not   think  that   his   was    by    any   means 
a  singular   case.     Agents   of    the   religious   Orders,  he 
declared,    were    ever   hanging    about   the    schools    and 
colleges,  endeavouring  to  entice  the  youthful  students 
into  their  ranks  by  any  and  every  method.       But  he 
is   careful    to    add,    "  I    do   not   condemn   the  religious 
Orders  as  such.      I  do  not  approve  of  those  who  make 
the  plunge  and  then  fly  back  to  liberty  as  a  licence  for 
loose  living,  and  desert  improperly  what  they  undertook 
foolishly.      But  dispositions  vary  ;  all  things  do  not  suit 
all   characters,   and  no  worse  misfortune   can    befall   a 
youth  of  intellect  than  to  be  buried  under  conditions  from 
which  he  can  never  after  extricate  himself.     The  world 
thought  well  of  my  schoolmaster  guardian  because  he 
was    neither   a   liar   nor    a   scamp  nor   a   gambler,   but 
he    was    coarse,    avaricious,    and    ignorant,    he    knew 


ERASMUS  159 

nothing  beyond  the  confused  lessons  he  taught  to  his 
classes.  He  imagined  that  in  forcing  a  youth  to 
become  a  monk  he  would  be  offering  a  sacrifice 
acceptable  to  God.  He  used  to  boast  of  the  many 
victims  which  he  destined  to  Dominic  and  Francis  and 
Benedict."  ^ 

Without  any  taste  for  the  routine  of  conventual 
life,  and  with  his  mind  filled  by  an  ardent  love  of 
letters,  which  there  seemed  in  the  narrow  circle  of 
his  cloister  no  prospect  of  ever  being  able  to  gratify, 
the  short  period  of  Erasmus's  stay  at  Stein  must  have 
been  to  him  in  the  last  degree  uncongenial  and  irksome. 
Fortunately,  however,  for  his  own  peace  of  mind  and 
for  the  cause  of  general  learning,  a  means  was  quickly 
found  by  which  he  was  practically  emancipated  from 
the  restraints  he  ought  never  to  have  undertaken. 
The  Bishop  of  Cambray  obtained  permission  to  have 
him  as  secretary,  and  after  keeping  him  a  short  time 
in  this  position  he  enabled  him  to  proceed  to  the 
University  of  Paris.  From  this  time  Erasmus  was 
practically  released  from  the  obligations  of  conventual 
life;  and  in  15 14,  when  some  question  had  been 
raised  about  his  return  to  the  cloister,  he  readily 
obtained  from  the  Pope  a  final  release  from  a  form 
of  life  for  which  obviously  he  was  constitutionally 
unfitted,  and  the  dress  of  which  he  had  been  permitted 
to  lay  aside  seven  years  previously. 

The  generosity  of  his  episcopal  patron  did  not 
suffice  to  meet  all  Erasmus's  wants.  To  add  to  his 
income  he  took  pupils,  and  with  one  of  them.  Lord 
Mountjoy,  he  came  to  England  in  1497.  He  spent 
apparently,   the    next    three    years   at  Oxford,   living  in 

M.      ^  Froude's  translation. 


i6o      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

the  house  which  his  Order  had  at  that  University  ; 
whilst  there  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  most 
learned  Englishmen  of  that  time,  and  amongst  others 
of  Grocyn,  Linacre,  and  Colet.  He  also  at  this  time 
took  up  the  study  of  the  Greek  language,  with  which 
previously  he  had  but  a  slender  acquaintance,  and 
his  ardour  was  so  great  that  the  following  year,  1498, 
whilst  at  work  on  the  Adagt'a,  he  could  write,  "  I  am 
giving  my  whole  soul  to  the  study  of  Greek  ;  directly 
I  get  some  money  I  shall  buy  Greek  authors  first, 
and  then  some  clothes."  From  1499  to  1506  he  was 
continually  moving  about  in  various  learned  centres 
of  France  and  Holland,  his  longest  stay  being  at  the 
University  of  Louvain. 

In  the  April  of  1506  he  was  again  in  England,  first 
with  Archbishop  Warham  and  Sir  Thomas  More  in 
London,  and  subsequently  at  Cambridge  ;  but  in  a  few 
months  he  was  enabled  to  carry  out  the  plan  of  visiting 
Italy  which  he  had  long  contemplated.  He  engaged  to 
escort  the  two  sons  of  Sebastian  Boyer,  the  English 
court  physician,  as  far  as  Bologna,  and  by  September 
he  was  already  in  Turin,  where  he  took  his  doctor's 
degree  in  divinity.  The  winter  of  the  same  year  he 
passed  at  Bologna,  and  reached  Venice  in  the  spring 
of  1507. 

His  main  object  in  directing  his  steps  to  this  last- 
named  city  was  to  pass  the  second  and  enlarged  edition 
of  his  Adagia  through  the  celebrated  Aldine  printing- 
press.  Here  he  found  gathered  together,  within  reach 
of  the  press,  a  circle  of  illustrious  scholars.  Aldus  him- 
self, a  man,  as  Erasmus  recalled  in  a  letter  written  in 
1524,  "approaching  the  age  of  seventy  years,  but  in 
all  matters  relating  to  letters  still  in  the  prime  of  his. 


ERASMUS  i6i 

youth,"  was  his  host.  In  1508  Erasmus  removed  to 
Padua,  and  the  following  year  passed  on  to  Rome, 
where  he  was  well  received.  His  stay  in  the  eternal 
city  at  this  time  was  not  prolonged,  for  a  letter  re- 
ceived from  Lord  Mountjoy  announcing  the  death  of 
Henry  VII.,  and  the  good  affection  of  his  youthful 
successor  to  learning,  determined  him  to  turn  his  face 
once  more  towards  England.  He  had  left  the  country 
with  keen  regret,  for,  as  he  wrote  to  Dean  Colet,  "  I 
can  truly  say  that  no  place  in  the  world  has  given  me 
so  many  friends — true,  learned,  helpful,  and  illustrious 
friends — as  the  single  city  of  London,"  and  he  looked 
forward  to  his  return  with  pleasurable  expectation. 

For  a  brief  period  on  his  arrival  again  in  this 
country  Erasmus  stayed  in  London  at  the  house  of 
Sir  Thomas  More,  where,  at  his  suggestion,  he  wrote 
the  Enconium  MoricBj  one  of  the  works  by  which  he  is 
best  known  to  the  general  reader,  and  the  one,  perhaps, 
the  spirit  of  which  has  the  most  given  rise  to  many 
mistaken  notions  as  to  the  author's  religious  convictions. 

From  London,  in  15 10,  he  was  invited  by  Bishop 
Fisher  to  come  and  teach  at  Cambridge,  where  by  his 
influence  he  had  been  appointed  Lady  Margaret  Pro- 
fessor of  Divinity  and  Regius  Reader  of  Greek.  "  Unless 
I  am  much  mistaken,"  Erasmus  writes,  "  the  Bishop  of 
Rochester  is  a  man  without  an  equal  at  this  time,  both 
as  to  integrity  of  life,  learning,  or  broad-minded  sym- 
pathies. One  only  do  I  except,  as  a  very  Achilles,  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  (Warham),  who  alone  keeps 
me  in  London,  though  I  confess  not  very  unwillingly."  ^ 

In  estimating  the  spirit  which  dictated  the  composi- 
tion of  the  Moricv,  it  is  well  to  remember  not  only  that 

^  Opera,  ed.  Leclerc,  iii.  col.  102. 

L 


1 62       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

it  represented  almost  as  much  the  thought  and  genius 
of  Sir  Thomas  More  as  of  Erasmus  himself,  but  that, 
at  the  very  time  it  was  taking  definite  shape  in  More's 
house  at  Chelsea,  the  author's  two  best  friends  were  the 
two  great  and  devout  churchmen.  Archbishop  Warham 
and  the  saintly  Bishop  Fisher.  Moreover,  Sir  Thomas 
More  himself  denies  that  to  this  work  of  Erasmus  there 
can  justly  be  affixed  the  note  of  irreverence  or  irreligion  ; 
he  answers  for  the  good  intention  of  the  author,  and 
accepts  his  own  share  of  responsibility  for  the  publication 
of  the  book. 

The  period  of  Erasmus's  stay  at  Cambridge  did  not 
extend  beyond  three  years.  The  stipend  attached  to 
his  professorships  was  not  large,  and  Erasmus  was  still, 
apparently,  in  constant  want  of  money.  Archbishop 
Warham  continued  his  friend,  and  by  every  means 
tried  continually  to  interest  others  directly  in  the  cause 
of  learning  and  indirectly  in  the  support  of  Erasmus, 
who  is  ever  complaining  that  his  means  are  wholly 
inadequate  to  supply  his  wants.  The  scholar,  however, 
remained  on  the  best  of  terms  with  all  the  chief  English 
churchmen  of  the  day,  until,  as  he  wrote  to  the  Abbot 
of  St.  Bertin,  "  Erasmus  has  been  almost  transformed 
into  an  Englishman,  with  such  overwhelming  kindness 
do  so  many  treat  me,  and  above  all,  my  special  Maecenas, 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury.  He  indeed  is  not  only 
my  patron,  but  that  of  all  the  learned,  amongst  whom  I 
but  hold  a  low  place.  Immortal  gods  !  how  pleasant, 
how  ready,  how  fertile  is  the  wit  of  that  man  !  What 
dexterity  does  he  not  show  in  managing  the  most  com- 
plicated business  !  What  exceptional  learning  !  What 
singular  courtesy  does  he  not  extend  to  all  !  What 
gaiety   and   geniality   at   interviews !    so   that   he  never 


ERASMUS  163 

sends  people  away  from  him  sad.  Added  to  this,  how 
great  and  how  prompt  is  his  hberality !  He  alone 
seems  to  be  ignorant  of  his  own  great  qualities  and  the 
height  of  his  dignity  and  fortune.  No  one  can  be  more 
true  and  faithful  to  his  friends  ;  and,  in  a  word,  he  is 
truly  a  Primate,  not  only  in  dignity,  but  in  everything 
worthy  of  praise."  ^ 

Erasmus  returns  to  this  same  subject  in  writing  to 
a  Roman  Cardinal  about  this  time.  When  I  think,  he 
says,  of  the  Italian  sky,  the  rich  libraries,  and  the 
society  of  the  learned  men  in  Rome,  I  am  tempted  to 
look  back  to  the  eternal  city  with  regret.  "  But  the 
wonderful  kindness  of  William  Warham,  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  to  me  mitigates  my  desire  to  return. 
Had  he  been  my  father  or  brother  he  could  not  have 
been  more  kind  and  loving.  I  have  been  accorded, 
too,  the  same  reception  by  many  other  bishops  of 
England.  Amongst  these  stands  pre-eminent  the 
Bishop  of  Rochester,  a  man  who,  in  addition  to 
his  uprightness  of  life,  is  possessed  of  deep  and  varied 
learning,  and  of  a  soul  above  all  meanness,  for  which 
gifts  he  is  held  here  in  England  in  the  highest  estima- 
tion." - 

'   Ibid.,  Ep.  144. 

^  In  one  of  his  works  Erasmus  gives  the  highest  praise  to  English 
ecclesiastics  for  their  single-minded  devotion  to  their  clerical  duties.  He 
contrasts  them  with  clerics  of  other  nations  in  regard  to  worldly  ambitions, 
&c.  "  Those  who  are  nearest  to  Christ,"  he  writes,  "  should  keep  themselves 
free  from  the  baser  things  of  this  world.  How  ill  the  word  '  general '  sounds 
when  connected  with  that  of  'Cardinal,'  or  '  duke '  with  that  of  'bishop,' 
'earl'  with  that  of  'abbot,'  or  'commander'  with  that  of  'priest.'  In 
England  the  ecclesiastical  dignity  is  the  highest,  and  the  revenues  of  churchmen 
abundant.  In  that  country,  however,  no  one  who  is  a  bishop  or  abbot  has 
even  a  semblance  of  temporal  dominion,  or  possesses  castles  or  musicians  or 
bands  of  retainers,  nor  does  any  of  them  coin  his  own  money,  excepting  only 
the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  as  a  mark  of  dignity  and  honour,  which  has 
been  conferred  on  him  on  account  of  the  death  of  Saint  Thomas  ;  he  is,  how- 


164      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

Erasmus  certainly  had  reason  to  be  grateful  to 
Warham  and  his  other  English  friends  for  their  ready- 
attention  to  his,  at  times  importunate,  requests.  War- 
ham,  he  writes  at  one  time,  "  has  given  me  a  living 
worth  a  hundred  nobles  and  changed  it  at  my  request 
into  a  pension  of  one  hundred  crowns.  Within  these 
few  years  he  has  given  me  more  than  four  hundred 
nobles  without  my  asking.  One  day  he  gave  me  one 
hundred  and  fifty.  From  other  bishops  I  have  re- 
ceived more  than  one  hundred,  and  Lord  Mountjoy 
has  secured  me  a  pension  of  one  hundred  crowns."  In 
fact,  in  the  Compendium  Vitce,  a  few  years  later,  he  says 
that  he  would  have  remained  for  the  rest  of  his  life 
in  England  had  the  promises  made  to  him  been  always 
fulfilled.  This  constant  and  importunate  begging  on 
the  part  of  the  great  scholar  forms  certainly  an  un- 
pleasant feature  in  his  life.  He  gets  from  Dean  Colet 
fifteen  angels  for  a  dedication,  and  in  reference  to 
his  translation  of  St.  Basil  on  the  Prophet  Isaias, 
begs  Colet  to  find  out  whether  Bishop  Fisher  will 
be  inclined  "  to  ease  his  labours  with  a  little  reward," 
adding  himself,  "  O  this  begging  !  I  know  well 
enough  that  you  will  be  laughing  at  me."  ^  Again^ 
whilst  lamenting  his  poverty  and  his  being  compelled 
to  beg  continually  in  this  way,  he  adds  that  Linacre 
has  been  lecturing  him  for  thus  pestering  his  friends^ 
and  has  warned  him  to  spare  Archbishop  Warham  and 
his  friend  Mountjoy  a  little.  In  this  same  letter, 
written  in  October  15 13,  there  are  signs  of  friction 
with   some    of    the    Cambridge    teachers    of    theology, 

ever,  never  concerned  in  matters  of  war,  but  is  occupied  only  in  the  care  of 
the  churches."     {Considtatio  de  Bella  Tiircico,     Opc7-a,  ed.  Leclerc,  torn.  v. 

P-  363) 

1  Opera,  &c.,  tit  sup.,  Ep.  149. 


ERASMUS  165 

which  may  have  helped  Erasmus  in  his  determination 
once  more  to  leave  England.  Not  that  he  professed 
to  care  what  people  thought,  for  he  tells  Colet  he  does 
not  worry  about  those  whom  he  calls  in  derision  "the 
Scotists,"  but  would  treat  them  as  he  would  a  wasp. 
Nevertheless,  he  is  still  half  inclined  by  the  opposi- 
tion to  stop  the  work  he  is  engaged  on  ;  confessing, 
also,  that  he  is  almost  turned  away  from  the  design 
of  thus  translating  St.  Basil,  as  the  Bishop  of  Rochester 
is  not  anxious  for  him  to  do  it,  and — at  least  so 
a  friend  has  told  him — rather  suspects  that  he  is 
translating,  not  from  the  original  Greek,  but  is  making 
use  of  a  Latin  version. 

Almost  immediately  after  writing  this  letter  Eras- 
mus again  bade  farewell  to  England,  and  passed  up  the 
Rhine  to  Strasburg,  where  he  made  the  acquaintance  of 
Wimpheling,  Sebastian  Brant,  and  others.  The  follow- 
ing year,  15 15,  he  went  on  to  Basle,  attracted  by  the 
great  reputation  of  the  printing-press  set  up  in  that  city 
by  Froben.  He  was  there  eagerly  welcomed  by  the 
bishop  of  the  city,  who  had  gathered  round  him  many 
men  imbued  with  the  true  spirit  of  learning  ;  and  Eras- 
mus soon  became  the  centre  of  this  brilliant  group  of 
scholars.  From  this  time  Basle  became  Erasmus's 
home,  although,  especially  in  the  early  years,  he  was 
always  on  the  move.  He  paid  a  flying  visit  once 
more,  in  15 17,  to  England,  but  he  had  learnt  to  love 
his  independence  too  much  to  entertain  any  proposals 
for  again  undertaking  duties  that  would  tie  him  to  any 
definite  work  in  any  definite  place.  Even  the  sugges- 
tions of  friends  that  he  would  find  congenial  and 
profitable  pursuits  in  England  were  unheeded,  and 
he  remained  unmoved   even  when   his   friend  Andrew 


i66      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

Ammonius  wrote  to  say  the  king  himself  was  looking 
for  his  return.  "  What  about  Erasmus  ? "  Henry 
had  asked.  "  When  is  he  coming  back  to  us  ?  He 
is  the  light  of  our  age.  Oh  that  he  would  return 
to  us  !  "  ' 

From  England,  however,  he  continued  to  receive  sup- 
plies of  money  ;  although  his  circumstances  improved 
so  much  with  the  steady  circulation  of  his  books,  that 
he  was  not  at  this  second  period  of  his  life  so  depen- 
dent upon  the  charity  of  his  friends.  About  the  year 
1520  Erasmus  settled  permanently  at  Basle  as  literary 
superintendent  of  Froben's  press.  What,  no  doubt, 
induced  him  to  do  so,  even  more  than  the  offer  of  this 
position,  was  the  fact  that  Basle  had  then  become,  by 
the  establishment  of  printing-presses  by  Amberbach 
and  Froben,  the  centre  of  the  German  book-trade. 
Froben  died  in  1527,  and  that  circumstance,  as  well 
as  the  religious  troubles  which,  separating  Basle  from 
the  empire  and  making  it  the  focus  of  civil  strife, 
ended  in  wrecking  learning  there  altogether,  put  an  end 
to  Erasmus's  connection  with  the  press  which  for 
eight  years  had  taken  the  lead  of  all  the  presses  of 
Europe.  Not  only  was  the  literary  superintendence 
of  the  work  completely  in  the  hands  of  Erasmus 
during  this  period  which  he  described  as  his  "  mill," 
but  all  the  dedications  and  prefaces  to  Froben's  edi- 
tions of  the  Fathers  were  the  distinct  work  of  his  own 
pen.  His  literary  activity  at  this  period  was  enormous, 
and  only  the  power  he  had  acquired  of  working  with 
the  greatest  rapidity  could  have  enabled  him  to  cope 
with  the  multiplicity  of  demands  made  upon  him. 
Scaliger    relates    that    Aldus     informed    him    Erasmus 

1  Ibid.,  Ep.  175. 


ERASMUS  167 

could  do  twice  as  much  work  in  a  given  time  as  any 
other  man  he  had  ever  met.  This  untiring  energy 
enabled  him  to  cope  with  the  immense  correspondence 
which,  as  he  says,  came  pouring  in  "  daily  from  almost 
all  parts,  from  kings,  princes,  prelates,  men  of  learning, 
and  even  from  persons  of  whose  existence  I  was,  till 
then,  ignorant,"  and  caused  him  not  infrequently  to  write 
as  many  as  forty  letters  a  day. 

On  Froben's  death  in  1527,  the  fanatical  religious 
contentions  forced  him  to  remove  to  Freiburg,  in  Breis- 
gau,  where  he  resided  from  1529  to  1535.  The  need 
for  seeing  his  Ecclesiastes  through  the  press,  as  well  as 
a  desire  to  revisit  the  scenes  of  his  former  activity,  took 
him  back  to  Basle  ;  but  his  health  had  been  giving  way 
for  some  years,  and,  at  the  age  of  sixty-nine,  he  expired 
at  Basle  on  July  12,  1536. 

Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  life  of  the  most 
remarkable  among  the  leaders  of  the  movement  known 
as  the  renaissance  of  letters.  Without  some  general 
knowledge  of  the  main  facts  of  his  life  and  work,  it 
would  be  still  more  difficult  than  it  is  to  understand 
the  position  he  took  in  regard  to  the  great  religious 
revolution  during  the  later  half  of  his  life.  With  these 
main  facts  before  us  we  may  turn  to  a  consideration  of 
his  mental  attitude  towards  some  of  the  many  momen- 
tous questions  which  were  then  searching  men's  hearts 
and  troubling  their  souls. 

In  the  first  place,  of  course,  comes  the  important 
problem  of  Erasmus's  real  position  as  regards  the 
Church  itself  and  its  authority.  That  he  was  out- 
spoken on  many  points,  even  on  points  which  we  now 
regard  as  well  within  the  border-line  of  settled  matters 
of   faith    and   practice,  may    be   at    once   admitted,  but 


i68       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

he  never  appears  to  have  wavered  in  his  determination 
at  all  costs  to  remain  true  and  loyal  to  the  Pope  and 
the  other  constituted  ecclesiastical  authorities.  The 
open  criticism  of  time-worn  institutions  in  which  he 
indulged,  and  the  sweeping  condemnation  of  the  or- 
dinary teachings  of  the  theological  schools,  which  he 
never  sought  to  disguise,  brought  him  early  in  his 
public  life  into  fierce  antagonism  with  many  devoted 
believers  in  the  system  then  in  vogue. 

The  publication  of  his  translation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment from  the  Greek  brought  matters  to  an  issue.  The 
general  feeling  in  England  and  amongst  those  best  able 
to  judge  had  been  favourable  to  the  undertaking,  and 
on  its  first  appearance  Erasmus  was  assured  of  the 
approval  of  the  learned  world  at  the  Enghsh  univer- 
sities.^ More  wrote  Latin  verses  addressed  to  the 
reader  of  the  new  translation,  calling  it  "  the  holy  work 
and  labour  of  the  learned  and  immortal  Erasmus,"  to 
purify  the  text  of  God's  Word.  Colet  was  warm  in 
its  praises.  Copies,  he  writes  to  Erasmus,  are  being 
readily  bought  and  read.  Many  approved,  although, 
of  course,  as  was  to  be  expected,  some  spoke  against 
the  undertaking.  In  England,  as  elsewhere,  says  Colet, 
^'  we  have  theologians  such  as  you  describe  in  your 
Morice,  by  whom  to  be  praised  is  dishonour,  to  be 
blamed  is  the  highest  praise."  For  his  part,  Colet  has, 
he  says,  only  one  regret  that  he  did  not  himself  know 
Greek  sufficiently  well  to  be  able  fully  to  appreciate 
what  Erasmus  had  done,  though  "  he  is  only  too  thank- 
ful for  the  light  that  has  been  .thrown  upon  the  true 
meaning  of  the  Holy  Scripture."  Archbishop  Warham 
writes  what  is  almost  an  official  letter,  to  tell  Erasmus 

1  Ibid.,  Ep.  216. 


ERASMUS  169 

that  his  edition  of  the  New  Testament  has  been  wel- 
comed by  all  his  brother  bishops  in  England  to  whom 
he  has  shown  it.  Bishop  Tunstall  was  away  in  Holland, 
where,  amidst  the  insanitary  condition  of  the  islands 
of  Zeeland,  which  he  so  graphically  describes,  he  finds 
consolation  in  the  study  of  the  work.  He  cannot  too 
highly  praise  it — not  merely  as  the  opening  up  of 
Greek  sources  of  information  upon  the  meaning  of 
the  Bible,  but  as  affording  the  fullest  commentary  on 
the  sacred  text.^  Bishop  Fisher  was  equally  clear  as 
to  the  service  rendered  to  religion  by  Erasmus  in  this 
version  of  the  Testament  ;  and  when,  in  15 19,  Froben 
had  agreed  to  bring  out  a  second  edition,  Erasmus 
turned  to  Fisher  and  More  to  assist  in  making  the 
necessary  corrections.^' 

More  defended  his  friend  most  strenuously.  Writ- 
ing to  Marten  Dorpius  in  15 15,  he  upbraided  him  with 
suggesting  that  theologians  would  never  welcome  the 
help  afforded  to  biblical  studies  by  Erasmus's  work  on 
the  Greek  text  of  the  Bible.  He  ridicules  as  a  joke  not 
meriting  a  serious  reply  the  report  that  Erasmus  and 
his  friends  had  declared  there  was  no  need  of  the  theo- 
logians and  philosophers,  but  that  grammar  would 
suffice.  Erasmus,  who  has  studied  in  the  universities 
of  Paris,  Padua,  Bologna,  and  Rome,  and  taught  with 
distinction  in  some  of  them,  is  not  likely  to  hold  such 
absurd  ideas.  At  the  same  time.  More  does  not  hesitate 
to  say  that  in  many  things  he  thinks  some  theologians 
are  to  be  blamed,  especially  those  who,  rejecting  all 
positive  science,  hold  that  man  is  born  to  dispute  about 
questions  of  all  kinds  which  have  not  the  least  practical 

^  Ibid.,  Ep.  272.  -  Ibid.,  Ep.  474. 


170      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

utility   "  even  as  regards  the  pietas  fidei  or  the  cultiva- 
tion of  sound  morals." 

At  great  length  More  defends  the  translation  against 
the  insinuations  made  by  Dorpius,  who  evidently  re- 
garded it  as  a  sacrilege  to  suggest  that  the  old  Latin 
editions  in  use  in  the  Church  were  incorrect.  St. 
Jerome,  says  More,  did  not  hesitate  to  change  when 
he  believed  the  Latin  to  be  wrong,  and  Dorpius's  sug- 
gestion that  Erasmus  should  have  only  noted  the  errors 
and  not  actually  made  any  change  would,  had  the 
same  principle  been  applied,  have  prevented  St.  Jerome's 
work  altogether.  If  it  was  thought  proper  that  the 
Latin  codices  should  be  corrected  at  that  time  by 
Greek  manuscripts,  why  not  now  ?  The  Church  had  then 
an  equally  recognised  version  before  the  corrections  of 
St.  Jerome.^ 

There  were,  indeed,  as  might  be  expected,  some 
discordant  notes  in  the  general  chorus  of  English 
praise.  For  the  time,  however,  they  remained  un- 
heeded, and,  in  fact,  were  hardly  heard  amid  the  general 
verdict  of  approval,  in  which  the  Pope,  cardinals,  and 
other  highly -placed  ecclesiastics  joined.  Erasmus, 
however,  was  fully  prepared  for  opposition  of  a  serious 
character.  Writing  to  Cambridge  at  the  time,  he  says 
that  he  knows  what  numbers  of  people  prefer  "their 
old  mumpsimus  to  the  new  sumpsimus,"  and  condemn 
the  undertaking  on  the  plea  that  no  such  work  as 
the  correction  of  the  text  of  Holy  Scripture  ought 
to  be  undertaken  without  the  authority  of  a  general 
Council.'^ 

It  is  easy  to  understand  the  grounds  upon  which 

1  Thomas  More,  Epigrammata  (ed.  Frankfort,  16S9),  p.  2S4  seqq. 

2  Ibid.,  Ep.  148. 


ERASMUS  171 

men  who  had  been  trained  on  old  methods  looked 
with  anxiety,  and  even  horror,  at  this  new  departure. 
Scholarship  and  literary  criticism,  when  applied  to  the 
pagan  classics,  might  be  tolerable  enough  ;  but  what 
would  be  the  result  were  the  same  methods  to  be 
used  in  the  examination  of  the  works  of  the  Fathers, 
and  more  especially  in  criticism  of  the  text  of  the  Holy 
Scripture  itself  ?  Overmuch  study  of  the  writings  of 
ancient  Greece  and  Rome  had,  it  appeared  to  many, 
in  those  days,  hardly  tended  to  make  the  world  much 
better :  even  in  high  places  pagan  models  had  been 
allowed  to  displace  ideals  and  sentiments,  which,  if  bar- 
barous and  homely,  were  yet  Christian.  Theologians 
had  long  been  accustomed  to  look  upon  the  Latin  Vul- 
gate text  as  almost  sacrosanct,  and  after  the  failure  of  the 
attempt  in  the  thirteenth  century  to  improve  and  correct 
the  received  version,  no  critical  revision  had  been  dreamt 
of  as  possible,  or  indeed  considered  advisable.  Those 
best  able  to  judge,  such  as  Warham  and  More  and 
Fisher,  were  not  more  eager  to  welcome,  than  others 
to  condemn  and  ban,  this  attempt  on  the  part  of 
Erasmus  to  apply  the  now  established  methods  of 
criticism  to  the  sacred  text.  Not  that  the  edition 
itself  was  in  reality  a  work  of  either  sound  learning 
or  thorough  scholarship.  As  an  edition  of  the  Greek 
Testament  it  is  now  allowed  on  all  hands  to  have  no 
value  whatever  ;  but  the  truth  is,  that  the  Greek  played 
only  a  subordinate  part  in  Erasmus's  scheme.  His 
principal  object  was  to  produce  a  new  Latin  version, 
and  to  justify  this  he  printed  the  Greek  text  along 
with  it.  And  this,  though  in  itself  possessing  little 
critical  value,  was,  in  reality,  the  starting-point  for  all 
modern    Biblical    criticism.     As   a   modern   writer   has 


172       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

said,  "  Erasmus  did  nothing  to  solve  the  problem, 
but  to  him  belongs  the  honour  of  having  first  pro- 
pounded it." 

It  must,  however,  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  publi- 
cation of  Erasmus's  New  Testament  was  not,  as  is 
claimed  for  it  by  some  modern  writers,  a  new  revela- 
tion of  the  Gospel  to  the  world  at  large,  nor  is  it 
true  that  the  sacred  text  had  become  so  obscured  by 
scholastic  theological  disquisitions  on  side  issues  as 
almost  to  be  forgotten.  According  to  Mr.  Froude, 
"  the  New  Testament  to  the  mass  of  Christians  was  an 
unknown  book,"  when  Erasmus's  edition,  which  was 
multiplied  and  spread  all  over  Europe,  changed  all  this. 
Pious  and  ignorant  men  had  come  to  look  on  the  text 
of  the  Vulgate  as  inspired.  ''  Read  it  intelligently  they 
could  not,  but  they  had  made  the  language  into  an 
idol,  and  they  were  filled  with  horrified  amazement 
when  they  found  in  page  after  page  that  Erasmus  had 
anticipated  modern  critical  corrections  of  the  text,  in- 
troduced various  readings,  and  re-translated  passages 
from  the  Greek  into  a  new  version."  -^  The  truth  is 
that  the  publication  of  the  New  Testament  was  in  no 
sense  an  appeal  ad  populum,  but  to  the  cultivated  few. 
A  writer  in  the  Quarterly  Review,  commenting  upon 
Mr.  Froude's  picture  of  the  effect  of  the  new  edition 
on  the  people  generally,  is  by  no  means  unjust  when 
he  says,  "  Erasmus  beyond  all  question  would  have 
been  very  much  astonished  by  this  account  of  the 
matter.  Certain  it  is  that  during  the  Middle  Ages  the 
minds  of  the  most  popular  preachers  and  teachers 
(and  we  might  add  of  the  laity  too)  were  saturated 
with  the  sacred  Scriptures."  '^ 

1  Erasnms,  p.  63.  "^  Quarterly  Review,  January  1895,  p.  23. 


ERASMUS  173 

Loud,  however,  was  the  outcry  in  many  quarters 
against  the  rash  author.  His  translations  were  ghbly 
condemned,  and  it  was  pointed  out  as  conclusive 
evidence  of  his  heterodoxy  that  he  had  actually 
changed  some  words  in  the  Our  Father,  and  substi- 
tuted the  word  congregatio  for  ec'clesia} 

The  year  15 19  witnessed  the  most  virulent  and 
persistent  attacks  upon  the  good  name  of  Erasmus. 
Of  these,  and  the  malicious  reports  being  spread 
about  him,  he  complains  in  numerous  letters  at  this 
period.  One  Englishman  in  particular  at  this  time, 
and  subsequently,  devoted  all  his  energies  to  prove 
not  only  that  Erasmus  had  falsified  many  of  his  trans- 
lations, but  that  his  whole  spirit  in  undertaking  the 
work  was  manifestly  uncatholic.  This  was  Edward 
Lee,  then  a  comparatively  unknown  youth,  but  who 
was  subsequently  created  Archbishop  of  York.  In  P'eb- 
ruary  15 19,  Erasmus  wrote  to  Cardinal  Wolsey,  com- 
plaining of  these  continued  attacks  upon  his  work, 
although  so  many  learned  men,  including  bishops, 
cardinals,  and  even  the  Pope  Leo  X.  himself,  had  given 
their  cordial  approval  to  the  undertaking.  Those  who 
were  at  the  bottom  of  the  movement  against  the  work,  he 
considered,  were  those  who  had  not  read  it,  though  they 

^  The  question  about  Erasmus's  translation  of  this  word  came  up  in  the 
discussion  between  Sir  Thomas  More  and  Tyndale  about  the  use  made  by 
the  latter  of  the  word  congregation  for  Church  in  his  version  of  the  New 
Testament.  More  writes  :  "  Then  he  asketh  me  why  I  have  not  contended 
with  Erasmus,  whom  he  calls  my  darling,  all  this  long  time,  for  translating 
this  word  ecclesia  into  this  word  congregatio,  and  then  he  cometh  forth  with 
his  proper  taunt,  that  I  favour  him  of  likelihood  for  making  of  his  book 
of  MoriiE  in  my  house.  .  .  .  Now  for  his  translation  of  ecclesia  by  congre- 
gatio his  deed  is  nothing  like  Tyndale's.  For  the  Latin  tongue  had  no  Latin 
word  used  before  for  the  Church  but  the  Greek  work  ecclesia,  therefore 
Erasmus  in  his  new  translation  gave  it  a  Latin  word.  .  .  .  Erasmus  also 
meant  no  heresy  therein,  as  appears  by  his  writings  against  the  heretics." 
(^English  Works,  pp.  421,  422.) 


174      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

still  had  no  shame  in  crying  out  against  it  and  its  author. 
He  was  told  that  in  some  public  discourses  in  England 
he  had  been  blamed  for  translating  the  word  verbum  in 
St.  John's  Gospel  by  sermo,  and  about  this  matter  he 
addressed  a  letter  to  the  Pope  defending  himself.-^  To 
the  Bishop  of  Winchester  he  wrote  more  explicitly  about 
his  chief  opponent.  "By  your  love  for  me,"  he  says,  "I 
beg  you  will  not  too  readily  credit  those  sycophants  about 
me,  for  by  their  action  all  things  seem  to  me  at  present 
infected  by  a  deadly  plague.  If  Edward  Lee  can  prove 
that  he  knows  better  than  I  do,  he  will  never  offend  me. 
But  when  he,  by  writing  and  speech,  and  by  means  of 
his  followers,  spreads  rumours  hurtful  to  my  reputation, 
he  is  not  even  rightly  consulting  his  own  reputation. 
He  has  openly  shown  a  hostile  spirit  against  me,  who 
never,  either  in  word  or  deed,  have  done  him  harm. 
He  is  young,  and  lusts  for  fame.  .  .  .  Time  will  bring 
all  to  light.  Truth  may  be  obscured  ;  overcome  it 
cannot  be."  ^  To  the  English  king  he  writes  that  in 
all  he  had  published  he  had  been  actuated  by  the  sole 
desire  to  glorify  Christ,  and  in  this  particular  work  had 
obtained  the  highest  approval,  even  that  of  the  Pope 
himself.  Some  people,  indeed,  have  conspired  to  de- 
stroy his  good  name.  They  are  so  pleased  with  their 
"  old  wine,"  that  "  Erasmus's  new "  does  not  satisfy 
them.  Edward  Lee  had  been  instigated  to  become 
their  champion,  and  Erasmus  only  wished  that  Lee 
were  not  an  Englishman,  since  he  owed  more  to  Eng- 
land than  to  any  other  nation,  and  did  not  like  to  think 
ill  even  of  an  individual.^ 


1  Ep.  384.  -  Ep.  423. 

^  Ep.  531.     Lee's  account  of  his  quarrel  with  Erasmus  is  given  in  his 
Apologia,  which  he  addressed  to  the  University  of  Louvain.     He  states  that 


ERASMUS  175 

When  men  are  thoroughly  alarmed,  they  do  not 
stop  to  reason  or  count  the  cost  ;  and  so  those,  who 
saw  in  the  work  of  Erasmus  nothing  but  danger  to 
the  Church,  at  once  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  the 

Erasmus  had  come  to  his  house  at  that  place,  and  had  asked  him  to  aid  in 
the  corrected  version  of  his  New  Testament  which  he  was  then  projecting. 
At  first  Lee  refused,  but  finally,  on  being  pressed  by  Erasmus,  he  consented, 
and  began  the  work  of  revision,  but  Erasmus  quickly  became  angry  at  so 
many  suggested  changes.  Reports  about  the  annotations  and  corrections 
proposed  by  Lee  began  to  be  spread  abroad,  and  Erasmus  hearing  of  them, 
suspected  some  secret  design,  and  came  from  Basle  to  try  and  get  a  copy 
of  the  proposed  criticism.  Lee  wished  that  it  should  be  considered  rather 
a  matter  of  theology  than  of  letters.  Bishop  Fisher  wrote,  on  hearing 
rumours  of  the  quarrel,  urging  Lee  to  try  and  make  his  peace  with  Erasmus, 
and  in  deference  to  this,  Lee  informed  Erasmus  that  he  would  leave  the 
matter  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  bishop,  and  had  forwarded  to  him  the 
book  of  his  proposed  criticisms.  Erasmus,  however,  did  not  wait,  but  pub- 
lished the  Dialogus  Dotniiii  Jacobi  Latomi,  which  all  regarded  as  an  attack 
upon  Lee.  The  latter  would  have  published  a  reply  had  he  not  received 
letters  from  England  from  Fisher,  Colet,  Pace,  and  More,  begging  him  to  keep 
his  temper.  Lee  agreed  to  stop,  and  only  asked  Fisher  to  decide  the  matter 
quickly.  On  returning  to  Louvain,  Lee  found  that  Erasmus  had  published 
his  Dialogus  bilingium  et  trilmgmm,  in  which  Lee  was  plainly  indicated  as 
a  man  hostile  to  the  study  of  letters  in  general.  This  Lee  denied  altogether, 
and  in  brief,  he  does  not,  he  says,  condemn  Erasmus's  notes  on  the  New 
Testament  so  much  as  the  copy  he  had  taken  as  the  basis  for  his  corrections 
of  the  later  text.  "  Politian,"  says  Lee,  at  the  end  of  his  Apologia,  "  Politian 
declares  that  there  are  two  great  pests  of  literature— ignorance  and  envy.  To 
these  I  will  add  a  third — 'adulation' — for  I  have  no  belief  in  any  one  who, 
having  made  a  mistake,  is  not  willing  to  acknowledge  it." 

Lee's  criticism  of  Erasmus's  translation  appeared  at  Louvain  in  January 
1520.  It  produced  an  immediate  reply  from  Erasmus,  published  at  Antwerp 
in  May  1520— a  reply  "all  nose,  teeth,  nails,  and  stomach."  In  this  Erasmus 
says  that  1200  copies  of  the  New  Testament  had  been  printed  by  Froben.  In 
the  collation  he  had  been  much  assisted  by  Bishop  Tunstall,  who  had,  in  fact, 
supplied  the  exemplar  on  which  he  had  worked.  Erasmus  then  gives  what  he 
thinks  is  the  correct  version  of  the  differences  between  Lee  and  himself.  Lee, 
he  says,  was  only  just  beginning  Greek,  and  Erasmus,  who  had  been  working 
at  the  correction  of  his  version  of  the  Testament,  showed  him  what  he  was 
doing.  The  margins  of  the  book  were  then  full  of  notes,  and  here  and 
there  whole  pages  of  paper  were  added.  Lee  said  that  he  had  a  few  notes 
that  might  be  useful,  and  Erasmus  expressed  his  pleasure  at  receiving  help  and 
asked  for  them.  Lee  thereupon  gave  him  some  miscellaneous  jottings,  and  of 
these,  according  to  Erasmus's  version  of  the  facts,  he  made  use  of  hardly  any- 
thing. Soon,  however,  reports  were  spread  about  that  out  of  some  three 
hundred  places  in  which  Lee  had  corrected  the  first  edition  of  the  translation, 


176      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

root  of  the  danger  really  lay  in  the  classical  revival 
itself,  of  which  he  was  regarded  as  the  chief  exponent 
and  apostle.  The  evil  must  be  attacked  in  its  cause, 
and  the  spread  of  the  canker,  which  threatened  to  eat 
into  the  body  of  the  Christian  Church,  stayed  before  it 
was  too  late.  From  the  theologians  of  Louvain,  with 
which  university  Erasmus  was  then  connected,  he 
experienced  the  earliest  and  most  uncompromising 
opposition.  He  was  "  daily,"  to  use  his  own  words, 
"  pounded  with  stones,"  and  proclaimed  a  traitor  to 
the  Church.^  His  opponents  did  not  stop  to  inquire 
into  the  truth  of  their  charges  too  strictly,  and  Erasmus 
bitterly  complains  of  the  damaging  reports  that  are 
being  spread  all  over  Europe  concerning  his  good 
name  and  his  loyalty  to  religion.  To  him  all  opposi- 
tion came  from  "  the  monks,"  who  were,  in  his  eyes, 
typical  of  antiquated  ecclesiastical  narrowness  and 
bigotry.  In  a  letter  written  in  15 19,  at  the  height 
of  "  the  battle  of  the  languages,"  as  it  was  called,  he 
gives  several  instances  of  this  attitude  towards  himself 
at  Louvain  when  he  suggested  some  alteration  in  a  text 
of  Holy  Scripture.  A  preacher  told  the  people  that 
he  had  declared  the  Gospel  "  to  be  merely  a  collection 
of  stupid  fables,"  and  at  Antwerp,  a  Carmelite  attacked 
him  in  a  sermon,  at  which  he  happened  to  be  present, 
and  denounced  the  appearance  of  his  New  Testament 
as  a  sign  of  the  coming  of  Antichrist.  On  being  asked 
afterwards  for  his  reasons,   he    confessed  that   he   had 

Erasmus  had  adopted  two  hundred.  Bishop  Fisher  tried  to  make  peace, 
and  to  prevent  two  men  who  both  meant  well  to  the  cause  of  religion  from 
quarrelling  in  public.  His  intervention  was,  however,  too  late,  as  already 
the  letter  of  Erasmus  to  Thomas  Lupset  had  appeared  and  thus  rendered  re- 
conciliation impossible. 
1  Ep.  231. 


ERASMUS  177 

never  even  read  the  book  himself.  "  This,"  says 
Erasmus  sadly,  ''  I  generally  find  to  be  the  case  :  that 
none  are  more  bitter  in  their  outcry  than  they  who 
do  not  read  what  I  write."  In  this  same  letter,  Erasmus 
describes  the  ferment  raised  in  England  against  the 
study  of  languages.  At  Cambridge,  Greek  was  making 
progress  in  peace,  "  because  the  university  was  pre- 
sided over  by  John  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  a 
theologian  of  learning  and  uprightness  of  life."  At 
Oxford,  however,  fierce  public  attacks  were  made  in 
sermons  on  Greek  studies  ;  "  but  the  king,"  continues 
Erasmus,  "  as  one  not  unlearned  himself,  and  most 
favourable  to  the  cause  of  letters,  happened  to  be  in 
the  neighbourhood,  and  hearing  of  the  matter  from 
More  and  Pace,  ordered  that  all  wishing  to  study 
Greek  literature  should  be  encouraged,  and  so  put  a 
stop  to  the  business." 

The  contest  was  not  confined  to  the  schools.  "  A 
theologian  preaching  in  the  royal  palace  before  the 
king  took  this  opportunity  to  inveigh  boldly  and  un- 
compromisingly against  Greek  studies  and  the  new 
methods  of  interpretation.  Pace,  who  was  present, 
glanced  at  the  king  to  see  how  he  took  it,  and  Henry 
smiled  at  Pace.  After  the  sermon  the  theologian  was 
bidden  to  the  king,  and  to  More  was  assigned  the  task 
of  defending  Greek  learning  against  him,  the  king  him- 
self desiring  to  be  present  at  the  discussion.  After 
More  had  spoken  for  some  time  most  happily,  he 
paused  to  hear  the  theologian's  reply  ;  but  he,  on 
bended  knees,  asked  pardon  for  what  he  had  said, 
asserting  that  whilst  talking  he  was  moved  by  some 
spirit  to  speak  about  Greek  as  he  had  done.  There- 
upon the  king  said,  *  And  that  spirit  was  not   that   of 

M 


jyS      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

Christ,  but  of  folly!'  Then  Henry  asked  him  whether 
he  had  read  Erasmus's  works — he  admitted  that  he  had 
not.  Then  said  the  king,  '  By  this  you  prove  your 
folly,  in  condemning  what  you  have  not  read.'  Finally 
■the  king  dismissed  him,  and  ordered  that  he  should 
never  be  allowed  to  preach  in  the  royal  presence 
again." 

Those  who  desired  to  carry  on  the  campaign  to 
extremities,  endeavoured,  and  even  with  temporary 
success,  to  influence  Queen  Katherine  against  Erasmus 
and  the  party  for  the  revival  of  letters  which  he  repre- 
sented. Her  confessor,  a  Dominican  bishop,  persuaded 
her  that  in  correcting  St.  Jerome,  Erasmus  had  perpe- 
trated a  crime  which  admitted  of  no  excuse.^  It  was 
but  another  step  to  connect  the  renaissance  of  letters 
generally  with  the  revolt  now  associated  with  the  name 
of  Luther.  In  England,  however,  it  was  not  so  easy 
to  persuade  people  of  this,  since,  among  the  chief 
supporters  of  the  movement  were  to  be  numbered  the 
best  and  wisest  of  churchmen  and  laymen  whose  entire 
orthodoxy  was  not  open  to  suspicion.  Abroad,  how- 
ever, the  cry  once  started,  was  quickly  taken  up.  A 
theologian  at  Louvain,  writes  Erasmus,  who  up  to  this 
time  had  been  noted  for  his  sober  judgment,  before 
a  large  audience,  after  having  spoken  of  Lutheranism, 
attacked  "  the  teaching  of  languages  and  polite  letters, 
joining  the  two  together,  and  asserting  that  heresy 
came  from  these  springs,  as  if  experience  had  shown 
eloquence  to  be  a  mark  rather  of  the  heretics  than 
of  the  orthodox,  or  that  the  Latin  authors  of  heresy 
were  not  mere  children  so  far  as  languages  went,  or 

^  Ep.  380.     This  bishop  must  have  been  the  Spaniard,  George  de  Athegua, 
who  was  appointed  to  the  see  of  LlandafF  in  1517,  and  held  it  for  twenty  years. 


ERASMUS  179 

that  Luther  had  been  schooled  by  those  masters  and 
not  rather  by  the  scholastics,  according  to  scholastic 
methods."  ^ 

Erasmus  puts  the  position  even  more  clearly  in  a 
letter  to  Pope  Leo  X.  on  the  publication  of  the  revised 
version  of  his  New  Testament  in  August  15 19.  The 
book  is  now  in  people's  hands,  he  says,  and  as  it  has 
appeared  under  the  direct  auspices  of  the  Holy  Father 
himself,  it  may  be  regarded  as  his  work.  Some  foolish 
people,  he  understands,  have  been  trying  to  get  the 
Pope  to  believe  that  a  knowledge  of  languages  is 
detrimental  to  the  true  study  of  theology,  whereas,  in 
reality,  the  very  contrary  is  obviously  the  case.  Such 
people  will  not  reason,  they  cry  out  and  will  not  listen. 
They  suggest  damning  words,  such  words  for  example 
as  "  heretics,"  "  antichrists,"  &c.,  as  appropriate  to  their 
opponents.  They  call  out  that  even  the  Christian 
religion  is  imperilled,  and  beg  the  Pope  to  come  for- 
ward and  save  it.  On  his  part  Erasmus  hopes  that 
the  Pope  will  believe  that  all  his  work  is  for  Christ 
alone,  and  His  Church.  "  This  only  reward  do  I 
desire,  that  I  may  ever  seek  the  glory  of  Christ  rather 
than  my  own.  From  boyhood  I  have  ever  endeavoured 
to  write  nothing  that  savoured  of  impiety  or  disloyalty. 
No  one  has  ever  yet  been  made  blacker  by  my  writings  ; 
no  one  less  pious,  no  one  stirred  up  to  tumult." "' 
Again,  writing  to  Cardinal  Campeggio,  when  sending 
him  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament  "  which  Pope  Leo 
had  approved  by  his  Brief,"  Erasmus  tells  him  that, 
to  his  great  regret,  many  at  Louvain  were  doing  their 
best  not  to  allow  good  letters  to  flourish.  As  for  him- 
self, his  only  real  desire  was  to  serve  Christ  and  increase 

1  Ep.  380.  -  Ep.  453. 


i8o       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

the  glory  of  His  Church  ;  though,  he  adds,  "  I  am  a 
man,  and  as  such  Hable  to  err."  No  one  has  ever 
succeeded  in  pleasing  every  one,  and  he,  Erasmus,  will 
not  try  to  do  the  impossible.  Still  he  wishes  to  be 
judged  by  what  he  really  has  said  and  written  ;  whereas 
all  kinds  of  things,  letters,  books,  &c.,  are  attributed  to 
him,  about  which  he  knows  nothing  :  "  even  Martin 
Luther's  work,  amongst  the  rest,"  whilst  the  truth  is, 
he  does  not  know  Luther,  and  certainly  has  never 
read  his  book.^ 

At  the  end  of  the  following  year,  1520,  Erasmus 
again  writes  to  Cardinal  Campeggio  at  great  length. 
After  telling  him  that  he  had  hoped  to  have  passed 
the  winter  in  Rome  to  search  in  the  libraries  for  Greek 
manuscripts,  he  informs  him  that  in  Louvain  those  who 
prefer  the  old  barbarism  are  now  rampant.  Some 
think  to  please  the  people  by  opposition  to  learning, 
and  amongst  the  aiders  and  abettors  of  the  Lutheran 
movement  they  place  Erasmus  in  the  forefront.  The 
Dominicans  and  Carmelites,  he  says,  will  regard  him 
only  as  their  enemy.  Why,  he  does  not  know,  for  in 
reality  he  reverences  true  religion  under  "  any  coloured 
coat."  If  on  occasion  he  has  said  something  about  the 
vices  of  the  monks,  he  does  not  think  it  were  more 
right  for  the  religious,  as  a  body,  to  turn  against  him, 
than  it  would  be  for  priests  as  a  body,  when  their  vices 
were  spoken  against.  He  does  not  in  the  least  wish  to 
be  thought  opposed  to  the  religious  life,  as  such.  The 
condemnation  of  Luther  had  been  interpreted  by  many 
as  a  condemnation  of  learning,  and  had  been  turned 
against  Reuchlin  and  Erasmus.  As  for  himself,  he  has 
never,  he  declares,  even  seen  Luther,  who  has  certainly 

1  Ep.  416. 


ERASMUS 


i»i 


never  been  famous  for  good  letters  or  for  any  knowledge 
of  ancient  tongues,  and  hence  the  revival  of  letters  has 
no  connection  whatever  with  the  Lutheran  movement. 
The  prefaces  of  some  of  Luther's  books,  because  written 
in  good  Latin,  are  considered  sufficient  proof  of  his 
(Erasmus's)  connection  with  the  matter,  and  it  is 
asserted  openly  that  he  was  working  cordially  with 
the  Reformer  ;  whereas,  as  a  fact,  he  had  not  suggested 
even  so  much  as  a  full  stop  or  comma  for  his  writings. 
He  had,  he  admitted,  written  to  Luther,  and  this  and 
another  letter  to  the  Cardinal  of  Mentz  were  pointed 
to  as  proof  positive  of  his  Lutheran  leanings.  For 
these  he  has  been  denounced  to  bishops  as  a  heretic 
and  delated  to  the  Pope  himself,  while  all  the  time, 
in  truth,  he  has  never  read  two  pages  of  Luther's 
writings.  Certainly,  indeed,  he  recognised  in  Luther 
considerable  power,  but  he  was  not  by  any  means  alone 
in  doing  so.  Men  of  undoubted  faith  and  uprightness 
had  congratulated  themselves  on  having  fallen  in  with 
Luther's  works.  For  himself,  he  adds,  "  I  have  always 
preferred  to  look  for  the  good  rather  than  to  search  for 
the  evil,  and  I  have  long  thought  that  the  world  needed 
many  changes."  Finally,  before  passing  from  the 
subject,  he  begs  Cardinal  Campeggio  to  look  at  the 
letter  in  question  himself,  and  see  whether  it  could 
justly  be  said  to  favour  Luther  in  any  way.^ 

To  Pope  Leo  X.  Erasmus  also  wrote,  protesting 
against  the  cause  of  letters  generally  being  made  the 
same  as  that  of  Reuchlin  and  Luther.  With  the  former 
movement  he  was  identified  heart  and  soul ;  with  Luther 
and  his  revolt  he  had,  he  declared,  no  part  nor  sym- 
pathy.    "  I    have   not   known   Luther,"   he  says,    "  nor 

1  Ep.  547. 


1 82       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

have  I  ever  read  his  books,  except  perhaps  ten  or  a 
dozen  pages  in  various  places.  It  was  really  I  who 
first  scented  the  danger  of  the  business  issuing  in 
tumults,  which  I  have  always  detested."  Moreover, 
he  declares  that  he  had  induced  the  Basle  printer, 
Johann  Froben,  to  refuse  to  print  Luther's  works,  and 
that  by  means  of  friends  he  had  tried  to  induce  Luther 
to  think  only  of  the  peace  of  the  Church.  Two  years 
previously,  he  says,  Luther  had  written  to  him,  and  he 
had  replied  in  a  kindly  spirit  in  order  to  get  him,  if 
possible,  to  follow  his  advice.  Now,  he  hears,  that  this 
letter  has  been  delated  to  the  Pope  in  order  to  pre- 
judice him  in  the  Pontiff's  eyes  ;  but  he  is  quite  pre- 
pared to  defend  its  form  and  expression.  "  If  any 
one,"  he  says,  "  can  say  he  has  ever  heard  me,  even  at 
the  table,  maintain  the  teaching  of  Luther,  I  will  not 
refuse  to  be  called  a  Lutheran."  Finally,  he  expresses 
the  hope  that,  if  the  opponents  of  letters  have  been 
trying  to  calumniate  him,  he  may  rely  on  the  Pope's 
prudence  and  the  knowledge  of  his  own  complete 
innocence.  "  I,  who  do  not  wish  to  oppose  even  my 
own  bishop,  am  not,"  he  writes,  "  so  mad  as  to  act  in 
any  way  against  the  supreme  Vicar  of  Christ."  ^ 

^  Ep.  529.  Erasmus  wrote  strongly  against  anything  that  seemed  to 
favour  the  idea  of  national  churches.  After  declaring  that  national  dislikes 
and  enmities  were  unmeaning  and  unchristian,  he  continues  :  "As  an  English- 
man you  wish  evil  fortune  to  a  Frenchman.  Why  not  rather  do  your  wishes 
come  as  a  man  to  a  fellow-man?  Why  not  as  a  Christian  to  a  Christian? 
Why  do  these  frivolous  things  have  greater  weight  than  such  natural  ties, 
such  bonds  of  Christ?  Places  separate  bodies,  not  souls.  In  old  days  the 
Rhine  divided  a  Frenchman  from  a  German,  but  the  Rhine  cannot  divide  one 
Christian  from  another.  The  Pyrenees  cut  off  Spain  from  France,  but  these 
mountains  do  not  destroy  the  communion  of  the  Church.  The  sea  divides 
the  English  and  French  peoples,  but  it  cannot  cut  off  the  society  of  re- 
ligion. .  .  ."  The  world  is  the  fatherland  of  all  people  ;  all  men  are  sprung 
from  a  common  stock.  "The  Church  is  but  one  family,  common  to  all." 
(Opera.,  torn.  iv.  col.  638.) 


ERASMUS  183, 

As  time  went  on,  the  position  of  Erasmus  did  not 
become  more  comfortable.  Whilst  the  Lutherans  were 
hoping  that  sooner  or  later  something  would  happen  to 
compromise  the  outspoken  scholar  and  force  him  to 
transfer  the  weight  of  his  learning  to  their  side,  the 
champions  of  Catholicity  were  ill  satisfied  that  he  did 
not  boldly  strike  out  in  defence  of  the  Church.  To 
this  latter  course  many  of  his  English  friends  had 
strongly  urged  him,  and  both  the  king,  Fisher,  and 
others  had  set  him  an  example  by  publishing  works 
against  Luther's  position,  which  they  invited  him  to 
follow.  The  Pope,  too,  had  on  more  than  one  occasion 
personally  appealed  to  him  to  throw  off  his  reserve  and 
come  to  the  aid  of  orthodoxy.  They  could  not  under- 
stand how  he  was  able  to  talk  of  peace  and  kindness 
amidst  the  din  of  strife,  and  plead  for  less  harsh 
measures  and  less  bitter  words  against  Luther  and  his 
adherents,  when  the  battle  was  raging,  and  cities  and 
peoples  and  even  countries  were  being  seduced  by  the 
German  Reformer's  plausible  plea  for  freedom  and 
liberty.  Those  who  believed  in  Erasmus's  orthodoxy^ 
as  did  the  Pope  and  his  English  friends,  considered 
that  no  voice  was  more  calculated  to  calm  the  storm 
and  compel  the  German  people  to  listen  to  reason  than 
was  his.  Whilst  the  Reforming  party,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  doing  their  best  to  compromise  him  in  the 
eyes  of  their  opponents,  Erasmus  was  most  unwilling 
to  be  forced  into  action.  "Why,"  he  writes,  "do 
people  wish  to  associate  me  with  Luther  ?  W^hat 
Luther  thinks  of  me,  where  it  is  a  question  of  matters 
of  faith,  I  care  very  little.  That  he  doesn't  think  much 
of  me  he  shows  in  many  letters  to  his  friends.  In  his 
opinion  I  am   '  blind,'   '  miserable,'  *  ignorant  of  Christ 


184      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

and  Christianity,'  '  thinking  of  nothing  but  letters.' 
This  is  just  what  I  should  expect,"  he  says,  "  for  Luther 
has  always  despised  the  ancients."  As  for  himself,  he 
(Erasmus)  has  always  tried  his  best  to  inculcate  true 
piety  along  with  learning.' 

To  CEcolampadius,  in  February  1525,  he  wrote  a 
letter  of  protest  against  the  way  some  of  Luther's 
followers  were  doing  all  they  could  to  associate  his 
name  with  their  movement.  He  does  not  wish,  he 
says,  to  give  his  own  opinion  on  the  questions  at  issue  ; 
but  he  can  tell  his  correspondent  what  the  King  of 
England,  Bishop  Fisher,  and  Cardinal  Wolsey  think 
on  these  grave  matters.  He  objects  to  CEcolampadius 
putting  Magnus  Erasmus  noster — "  our  great  Erasmus" — 
in  a  preface  he  wrote,  without  any  justification.  "This 
naturally  makes  people  suppose,"  he  adds,  "  that  I  am 
really  on  your  side  in  these  controversies,"  and  he  begs 
that  he  will  strike  out  the  expression.- 

This  was  no  new  position  that  Erasmus  had  taken 
up  in  view  of  the  ever-increasing  difficulties  of  the 
situation.  Six  years  before  (in  15 19)  he  had  written 
fully  on  the  subject  to  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of 
Mentz.  It  was  this  letter  which  had  been  much  mis- 
understood, and  even  denounced  to  the  Pope  as  the 
work  of  a  disloyal  son  of  the  Church.  He,  on  the 
other  hand,  declared  that  he  was  not  committed  in 
any  way  to  the  cause  of  Reuchlin  or  Luther.  "  Luther 
is  perfectly  unknown  to  me,  and  his  books  I  have 
not  read,  except  here  and  there.  If  he  had  written 
well  it  would  not  have  been  to  my  credit ;  if  then  the 
opposite,  no  blame  should  attach  to  me.  I  regretted 
his   public   action,    and   when   the   first   tract,    I  forget 

1  Ep.  715.  2  Ep.  723. 


ERASMUS  185 

which,  was  talked  about,  I  did  all  I  could  to  prevent  its 
being  issued,  especially  as  I  feared  that  tumults  would 
come  out  of  all  this.  Luther  had  written  me  what 
appeared  to  my  mind  to  be  a  very  Christian  letter, 
and,  in  replying,  I,  by  the  way,  warned  him  not  to  write 
anything  seditious,  nor  to  abuse  the  Roman  Pontiff,  &c., 
but  to  preach  the  Gospel  truly  and  humbly."  He  adds 
that  he  was  kind  in  his  reply  purposely,  as  he  did  not 
wish  to  be  Luther's  judge.  And,  as  he  thought  that 
there  was  much  good  in  the  man,  he  would  willingly  do 
all  he  could  to  keep  him  in  the  right  way.  People  are 
too  fond,  he  says,  of  crying  out  "  heretic,"  &c.,  and 
"  the  cry  generally  comes  from  those  who  have  not  read 
the  works  they  exclaim  against."  ^ 

"  I  greatly  fear,"  he  writes  shortly  after,  "  for  this 
miserable  Luther  ;  so  angry  are  his  opponents  on  all 
sides,  and  so  irritated  against  him  are  princes,  and, 
above  all.  Pope  Leo.  Would  that  he  had  taken  my 
advice  and  abstained  from  these  hateful  and  seditious 
publications.  There  would  have  been  more  fruit  and 
less  rancour."  2 

Testimonies  might  be  multiplied  almost  indefinitely 
from  Erasmus's  writings  to  show  that  with  Lutheranism 
as  such  he  had  no  connection  nor  sympathy.  Yet 
his  best  friends  seem  to  have  doubted  him,  and 
some,  in  England,  suspected  that  Erasmus's  hand 
and  spirit  were  to  be  detected  in  the  reply  that 
Luther  made  to  King  Henry's  book  against  him. 
Bishop  Tunstall  confesses  that  he  is  relieved  to  hear 
by  the  letter  Erasmus  had  addressed  to  the  king  and 
the  legate  that  he  had  had  nothing  to  do  with  this 
violent  composition,   and,   moreover,   that   he   was   op- 

'  Ep.  477.  2  Ep.  528. 


1 86      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

posed  to  Lutheran  principles.  In  his  letter  on  this 
subject,  the  bishop  laments  the  rapid  spread  of  these 
dangerous  opinions  which  threaten  disturbances  every- 
where. When  the  sacred  ceremonies  of  the  Church 
and  all  pious  customs  are  attacked  as  they  are,  he  says, 
civil  tumults  are  sure  to  follow.  After  Luther's  book 
De  ahroganda  Missa,  the  Reformer  will  quickly  go 
further,  and  so  Tunstall  begs  and  beseeches  Erasmus, 
by  "  Christ's  Passion  and  glory  "  and  "  by  the  reward  " 
he  expects  ;  "  yea,  and  the  Church  itself  prays  and 
desires  you,"  he  adds,  "to  engage  in  combat  with  this 
hydra."  ^ 

At  length,  urged  by  so  many  of  his  best  friends, 
Erasmus  took  up  his  pen  against  Luther  and  produced 
his  book  De  libera  Arbitrio,  to  which  Luther,  a  past 
master  in  invective,  replied  in  his  contemptuous  De  servo 
Arbitrio,  Erasmus  rejoining  in  the  Hyperaspistes.  Sir 
Thomas  More  wrote  that  this  last  book  delighted  him,  and 
urged  Erasmus  to  further  attacks.  "  I  cannot  say  how 
foolish  and  inflated  I  think  Luther's  letter  to  you,"  he 
writes.  "  He  knows  well  how  the  wretched  glosses  into 
which  he  has  darkened  Scripture  turn  to  ice  at  your 
touch.     They  were,  it  is  true,  cold  enough  already."  - 

Erasmus's  volume  on  Free-will  drew  down  on  him, 
as  might  be  expected,  the  anger  of  the  advanced 
Lutherans.  Ulrich  von  Hutten,  formerly  a  brilliant 
follower  of  Erasmus  and  Reuchlin  in  their  attempts 
to  secure  a  revival  of  letters,  was  now  the  leader  of 
the  most  reckless  and  forward  of  the  young  German 
Lutherans,  who  assisted  the  Reformer  by  their  violence 
and  their  readiness  to  promote  any  and  all  of  his  doc- 
trinal   changes   by  stirring    up    civil    dissensions.      Von 

^  Ep.  656.  -  Ep.  334  (second  series.) 


ERASMUS  187 

Hutten  endeavoured  to  throw  discredit  upon  Erasmus 
by  a  brilliant  and  sarcastic  attack  upon  it.  In  1523, 
Erasmus  published  what  he  called  the  Spongio,  or  reply 
to  the  assertions  of  von  Hutten  on  his  honour  and 
character.  The  tract  is  really  an  apology  or  explana- 
tion of  his  own  position  as  regards  the  Lutherans,  and 
an  assertion  of  his  complete  loyalty  to  the  Church. 
The  book  was  in  Froben's  hands  for  press  in  June 
1523,  but  before  it  could  appear  in  September  von 
Hutten  had  died.  Erasmus,  however,  determined  to 
publish  the  work  on  account  of  the  gravity  of  the  issues. 
It  is  necessary,  if  we  would  understand  Erasmus's  posi- 
tion fully,  to  refer  to  this  work  at  some  considerable 
length.  After  complaining  most  bitterly  that  many 
people  had  tried  to  defame  him  to  the  Pope  and  to  his 
English  friends,  and  to  make  him  a  Lutheran  whether 
he  would  or  no  ;  and  after  defending  his  attitude  to- 
wards Reuchlin  as  consistent  throughout,  he  meets 
directly  von  Hutten's  assertion  that  he  had  condemned 
the  whole  Dominican  body.  "  I  have  never,"  he  says, 
"  been  ill  disposed  to  that  Order.  I  have  never  been 
so  foolish  as  to  wish  ill  to  any  Order.  If  it  were  neces- 
sary to  hate  all  Dominicans  because,  in  the  Order, 
there  were  some  bad  members,  on  the  same  ground 
it  would  be  needful  to  detest  all  Orders,  since  in  every 
one  there  are  many  black  sheep."  On  the  same  prin- 
ciple Christianity  itself  would  be  worthy  of  hatred.^ 
The  fact  really  is  that  the  Dominicans  have  many 
members  who  are  friendly  to  Erasmus,  and  who  are 
favourable  to  learning  in  general,  and  Scripture  study 
and  criticism  in  particular. 

In  the  same  way,  von  Hutten  had  mistaken  Erasmus's 

^  Spongia  (Basle,  Froben,  1523),  c.  5. 


i88      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

whole  attitude  towards  the  Roman  Church.  He  had 
charged  him  with  being  inconsistent,  in  now  praising, 
now  blaming  the  authorities.  Erasmus  characterises 
this  as  the  height  of  impudence.  "Who,"  he  asks,  "has 
ever  approved  of  the  vices  of  the  Roman  authorities  ? 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  who  has  ever  condemned  the 
Roman  Church  ?  " 

Continuing,  he  declares  that  he  has  never  been  the 
occasion  of  discord  or  tumult  in  any  way,  and  appeals 
with  confidence  to  his  numerous  letters  and  works 
as  sufficient  evidence  of  his  love  of  peace.  "  I  love 
liberty,"  he  writes  ;  "  I  neither  can  aid,  nor  desire  to  aid, 
any  faction."  Already  many  confess  that  they  were 
wrong  in  taking  a  part ;  and  he  sees  many,  who  had 
thrown  in  their  lot  with  Luther,  now  drawing  back,  and 
regretting  that  they  had  ever  given  any  countenance  to 
him.^  His  (Erasmus's)  sole  object  has  been  to  promote 
good  letters,  and  to  restore  Theology  to  its  simple  and 
true  basis,  the  Holy  Scripture.  This  he  will  endeavour 
to  do  as  long  as  he  has  life.  "  Luther,"  he  says,  "  I  hold 
to  be  a  man  liable  to  err,  and  one  who  has  erred. 
Luther,  with  the  rest  of  his  followers  will  pass  away  ; 
Christ  alone  remains  for  ever." 

In  more  than  one  place  of  this  Spongia,  Erasmus 
complains  bitterly  that  what  he  had  said  in  joke,  and  as 
mere  pleasantry  at  the  table,  had  been  taken  seriously. 
"  What  is  said  over  a  glass  of  wine,"  he  writes,  "  ought 
not  to  be  remembered  and  written  down  as  a  serious 
statement  of  belief.  Often  at  a  feast,  for  example,  we 
have  transferred  the  worldly  sovereignty  to  Pope  Julius, 
and  made  Maximilian,  the  emperor,  into  the  supreme 
Pontiff.      Thus,  too,   we   have  married   monasteries  of 

^  Ibid.,  sig.  d.  4. 


ERASMUS  189 

monks  to  convents  of  nuns  ;  we  have  sent  armies  of 
them  against  the  Turks,  and  colonised  new  islands  with 
them.  In  a  word,  we  turn  the  universe  topsy-turvy. 
But,  such  whims  are  never  meant  to  be  taken  seriously, 
as  our  own  true  convictions." 

Von  Hutten  had  complained  that  Erasmus  had 
spoken  harshly  about  Luther,  and  hinted  that  he  was 
really  actuated  by  a  spirit  of  envy,  on  seeing  Luther's 
books  more  read  than  his  own.  Erasmus  denies  that 
he  has  ever  called  Luther  by  any  harsh  names,  and 
particularly  that  he  has  ever  called  him  "  heretic." 
He  admits,  however,  that  he  had  frequently  spoken  of 
the  movement  as  a  "  tragedy,"  and  he  points  to  the 
public  discords  and  tumults  then  distracting  Germany 
as  the  best  justification  of  this  verdict.^ 

Von  Hutten  having  said  that  children  were  being 
taught  by  their  nurses  to  lisp  the  name  Luther,  Erasmus 
declares  that  he  cannot  imagine  whose  children  these 
can  be  ;  for,  he  says,  "  I  daily  see  how  many  influential, 
learned,  grave,  and  good  men  have  come  to  curse  his 
very  name." 

The  most  interesting  portion,  however,  of  the 
Spongia  is  that  in  which,  at  considerable  length, 
Erasmus  explains  his  real  attitude  to  Rome  and  the 
Pope.  "  Not  even  about  the  Roman  See,"  he  says, 
"  will  I  admit  that  I  have  ever  spoken  inconsistently. 
I  have  never  approved  of  its  tyranny,  rapacity,  and 
other  vices  about  which  of  old  common  complaints 
were  heard  from  good  men.  Neither  do  I  sweepingly 
condemn  '  Indulgences,'  though  I  have  always  disliked 
any  barefaced  traffic  in  them.  What  I  think  about 
ceremonies,  many  places  in  my  works  plainly  show.  .  .  . 

^  Ibid.,  sig.  e.  2. 


190      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

What  it  may  mean  '  to  reduce  the  Pope  to  order '  I 
do  not  rightly  understand.  First,  I  think  it  must  be 
allowed  that  Rome  is  a  Church,  for  no  number  of  evils 
can  make  it  cease  to  be  a  Church,  otherwise  we  should 
have  no  Churches  whatever.  Moreover,  I  hold  it  to  be 
an  orthodox  Church  ;  and  this  Church,  it  must  be 
admitted,  has  a  Bishop.  Let  him  be  allowed  also  to 
be  Metropolitan,  seeing  there  are  very  many  archbishops 
in  countries  where  there  has  been  no  apostle,  and  Rome, 
without  controversy,  had  certainly  SS.  Peter  and  Paul, 
the  two  chief  apostles.  Then  how  is  it  absurd  that 
among  Metropolitans  the  chief  place  be  granted  to  the 
Roman  Pontiff  ?  "  ^ 

As  to  the  rest,  Erasmus  had  never,  he  declares, 
defended  the  excessive  powers  which  for  many  years 
the  popes  have  usurped,  and,  like  all  men,  he  wishes 
for  a  thorough  apostolic  man  for  Pope.  For  his  part, 
if  the  Pope  were  not  above  all  things  else  an  apostle, 
he  would  have  him  deposed  as  well  as  any  other 
bishop,  who  did  not  fulfil  the  office  of  his  state.  For 
many  years,  no  doubt,  the  chief  evils  of  the  world  have 
come  from  Rome,  but  now,  as  he  believes,  the  world  has 
a  Pope  who  will  try  at  all  costs  to  purify  the  See  and 
Curia  of  Rome.  This,  however,  Erasmus  fancies  is  not 
quite  what  von  Hutten  desires.      He  would  declare  war 

^  Ibid.,  sig.  e.  2.  The  supreme  authority  of  the  Pope  is  asserted  by 
Erasmus  in  numberless  places  in  his  works.  For  example,  in  the  tract  Pads 
Qtcerintonia,  after  saying  that  he  cannot  understand  how  Christians,  who 
understand  Christ's  teaching  and  say  their  Pater  noster  with  intelligence,  can 
always  be  at  strife,  he  proceeds:  "The  authority  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  is 
supreme.  But  when  peoples  and  princes  wage  impious  wars,  and  that  for 
years,  where  then  is  the  authority  of  the  Pontiffs,  where  then  is  the  power 
next  to  Christ's  power?"  &c.  [Opera.,  tom  iv.  p.  635).  So  too  in  his 
Precalio  pro  Pace  Ecdesicz,  after  praying  that  God  would  turn  the  eyes  of 
His  mercy  upon  the  Church,  over  which  "  Peter  was  made  Supreme  Pastor," 
he  declares  that  there  is  but  "  one  Church,  out  of  which  there  is  no  salvation." 


ERASMUS  191 

against  the  Pope  and  his  adherents,  even  were  the  Pope 
a  good  Pope,  and  his  followers  good  Christians.  War 
is  what  von  Hutten  wants,  and  he  cares  not  whether  it 
brings  destruction  to  cities  and  peoples  and  countries. 

Erasmus  admits  that  he  knows  many  people  who 
are  ready  to  go  some  way  in  the  Lutheran  direction  ; 
but  who  would  strongly  object  to  the  overthrow  of 
papal  authority.  Many  would  rather  feel  that  they 
have  a  father  than  a  tyrant :  who  would  like  to  see 
the  tables  of  the  money-changers  in  the  temple  over- 
thrown, and  the  barefaced  granting  of  indulgences  and 
trafficking  in  dispensations  and  papal  bulls  repressed  : 
who  would  not  object  to  have  ceremonies  simplified, 
and  solid  piety  inculcated :  who  would  like  to  insist 
on  the  sacred  Scriptures  as  the  true  and  only  basis 
of  authoritative  teaching,  and  would  not  give  to  schol- 
astic conclusions  and  the  mere  opinions  of  schools  the 
force  of  an  infallible  oracle.  With  those  who  think 
thus,  says  Erasmus,  "  if  (as  is  the  case)  there  is  no 
compact  on  my  part,  certainly  my  old  friendly  feeling 
for  them  remains  cemented  by  the  bond  of  learning, 
even  if  I  do  not  agree  with  them  in  all  these  things." 

But,  he  continues,  it  is  not  among  these  well- 
wishers  of  reform  that  von  Hutten  and  Luther  will 
find  their  support.  This  is  to  be  found  among  the 
"  unlettered  people  without  any  judgment  ;  among 
those  who  are  impure  in  their  own  lives,  and  detractors 
of  men  ;  amongst  those  who  are  headstrong  and  un- 
governable. These  are  they  who  are  so  favourable 
to  Luther's  cause  that  they  neither  know  nor  care 
to  examine  what  Luther  teaches.  They  only  have  the 
Gospel  on  their  lips  ;  they  neglect  prayer  and  the 
Sacraments  ;  they   eat  what   they  like  ;    and  they  live 


192       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

to  curse  the  Roman  Pontiff.  These  are  the  Lutherans." 
From  such  material  spring  forth  tumults  that  cannot 
be  put  down.  "  It  is  generally  in  their  cups,"  adds 
Erasmus,  "  that  the  Evangelical  league  is  recruited." 
They  are  too  stupid  to  see  whither  they  are  drifting, 
and  "  with  such  a  type  of  mankind  I  have  no  wish 
to  have  anything  to  do."  Some  make  the  Gospel  but 
the  pretext  for  theft  and  rapine  ;  and  "  there  are  some 
who,  having  squandered  or  lost  all  their  own  property, 
pretend  to  be  Lutherans  in  order  to  be  able  to  help 
themselves  to  the  wealth  of  others."  Von  Hutten 
wants  me,  says  Erasmus,  to  come  to  them.  "  To 
whom  ?  To  those  who  are  good  and  actuated  by  the 
true  Gospel  teaching  ?  I  would  willingly  fly  to  them 
if  any  one  will  point  them  out.  If  he  knew  of  any 
Lutherans,  who  in  place  of  wine,  prostitutes,  and  dice, 
have  at  any  time  delighted  in  holy  reading  and  con- 
versation ;  of  any  who  never  cheat  or  neglect  to  pay 
their  debts,  but  are  ready  to  give  to  the  needy ;  of  any 
who  look  on  injuries  done  to  them  as  favours,  who 
bless  those  who  curse  them — if  he  can  show  me  such 
people,  he  may  count  on  me  as  an  associate.  Lutherans, 
I  see  ;  but  followers  of  the  Gospel,  I  can  discover  few 
or  none." 

Von  Hutten  had,  in  his  attack,  with  much  bitter- 
ness condemned  Erasmus  for  not  renouncing  con- 
nection with  those  who  had  written  strongly  against 
Luther.  Erasmus  refused  to  entertain  the  notion. 
"  There  is,"  he  says,  *'  the  reverend  Father  John, 
Bishop  of  Rochester.  He  has  written  a  big  volume 
against  Luther.  For  a  long  period  that  man  has  been 
my  very  special  friend  and  most  constant  patron. 
Does    von    Hutten    seriously   want    me   to    break   with 


ERASMUS  193 

him,  because  he  has  sharpened  his  pen  in  writing 
against  Luther  ?  Long  before  Luther  was  thought 
of,"  he  says,  "  I  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  many 
learned  men.  Of  these,  some  in  later  years  took 
Luther's  side,  but  on  that  account  I  have  not  re- 
nounced outwardly  my  friendship  for  them.  Some 
of  these  have  changed  their  views  and  now  do  not 
think  much  of  Luther,  still  I  do  not  cease  to  regard 
them  as  my  friends." 

Towards  the  close  of  his  reply,  Erasmus  returns 
to  the  question  of  the  Pope.  Von  Hutten  had  charged 
him  with  inconsistency  in  his  views,  and  Erasmus  re- 
plies, "  He  who  most  desires  to  see  the  apostolic 
character  manifested  in  the  Pope  is  most  in  his 
favour."  It  may  be  that  one  can  hate  the  individual 
and  approve  of  the  office.  Whoever  is  favourable  to, 
and  defends,  bad  Popes  does  not  honour  the  office. 
He  (Erasmus)  has  been  found  fault  with  for  saying 
that  the  authority  of  the  Pope  has  been  followed  by 
the  Christian  world  for  very  many  ages.  What  he 
wrote  is  true,  and  as  long  as  the  work  of  Christ  is 
done  may  it  be  followed  for  ever.  Luther  wants 
people  to  take  his  ipse  dixit  and  authority,  but  he 
(Erasmus)  would  prefer  to  take  that  of  the  Pope. 
"  Even  if  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  was  not  estab- 
lished by  Christ,  still  it  would  be  expedient  that  there 
should  be  one  ruler  possessing  full  authority  over 
others,  but  which  authority  no  doubt  should  be  free 
from  all  idea  of  tyranny.  .  .  .  Because  I  have  criti- 
cised certain  points  in  the  See  of  Rome,  I  have  not 
for  that  reason  ever  departed  from  it.  Who  would 
not  uphold  the  dignity  of  one  who,  by  manifesting  the 
virtues  of  the  Gospel,  represents  Christ  to  us  ?  "     The 

N 


194      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

paradoxes  of  Luther  are  not  worth  dying  for.  "  There 
is  no  question  of  articles  of  faith,  but  of  such  matters 
as  '  Whether  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  was 
established  by  Christ : '  *  whether  cardinals  are  neces- 
sary to  the  Christian  Church  : '  '  whether  confession  is 
de  jure  divino : '  '  whether  bishops  can  make  their  laws 
binding  under  pain  of  mortal  sin  : '  '  whether  free  will 
is  necessary  for  salvation  : '  '  whether  faith  alone  assures 
salvation,'  &c.  If  Christ  gave  him  grace,"  Erasmus 
hopes  that  "he  would  be  a  martyr  for  His  truth,  but 
he  has  no  desire  whatever  to  be  one  for  Luther." 

This  last  point  was  immediately  taken  up  by  the 
Lutherans.  Von  Hutten,  as  it  has  already  been  said, 
had  died  before  the  publication  of  the  Spongia,  and  the 
reply  to  Erasmus  was  undertaken  by  Otto  Brunfels. 
He  rejected  Erasmus's  suggestion  that  nearly  all  that 
the  Lutherans  were  fighting  for  were  matters  of  opinion. 
They  were  matters  of  faith,  he  says,  and  no  uncertainty 
could  be  admitted  on  this  point.  In  order  to  make 
the  matter  clear,  he  enumerates  a  great  number  of 
tenets  of  Lutheranism  which  they  hold  to  as  matters  of 
revealed  certainty.  For  instance :  that  Christ  is  the 
only  head  of  the  Church  ;  that  the  Church  has  no 
corporate  existence  ;  that  the  mass  is  no  sacrifice  ;  that 
justification  comes  by  faith  alone  ;  that  our  works  are 
sins  and  cannot  justify ;  that  good  men  cannot  sin  ; 
that  there  are  only  two  Sacraments  ;  that  the  Pope's 
traditions  are  heretical  and  against  Scripture  ;  that 
the  religious  state  is  from  the  devil ;  and  several  score 
more  of  similar  points  more  or  less  important. 

That  Erasmus's  views  upon  the  necessity  of  the 
Papacy  expressed  in  the  Spongia  were  not  inconsistent 
with   his  previous  position  there  is   ample   evidence  in 


ERASMUS  195 

his  letters,  to  which  he  himself  appeals.  Replying,  for 
example,  to  one  who  had  written  to  him  deploring  the 
religious  differences  in  Bohemia,  Erasmus  declares  that, 
in  his  opinion,  it  is  needful  for  unity  that  there  should 
be  one  head.  If  the  prince  is  tyrannical,  he  should  be 
reduced  to  order  by  the  teaching  and  authority  of  the 
Roman  Pontiff.  If  the  bishop  play  the  tyrant,  there  is  still 
the  authority  of  the  Roman  Pontiff,  who  is  the  dispenser 
of  the  authority  and  the  Vicar  of  Christ.  He  may  not 
please  all,  but  who  that  really  rules  can  expect  to  do 
that  ?  "  In  my  opinion,"  he  adds,  "  those  who  reject 
the  Pope  are  more  in  error  than  they  who  demand 
the  Eucharist  under  two  kinds."  Personally,  he  would 
have  allowed  this,  although  he  thinks  that,  as  most 
Christians  have  now  the  other  custom,  those  who 
demand  it  as  a  necessity  are  unreasonable  and  to  be 
greatly  blamed.  Above  all  others,  he  reprobates  the 
position  of  those  who  refuse  to  obey,  speak  of  the  Pope 
as  Antichrist,  and  the  Roman  Church  as  a  "  harlot " 
because  there  have  been  bad  Popes.  There  have  been 
bad  cardinals  and  bishops,  bad  priests  and  princes,  and 
on  this  ground  we  ought  not  to  obey  bishop  or  pastor 
or  king  or  ruler.^  In  the  same  letter  he  rebukes  those 
who  desire  to  sweep  away  vestments  and  ceremonies 
on  the  plea  that  they  may  not  have  been  used  in 
apostolic  times. 

Later  on,  in  another  letter,  he  complained  that  people 
call  him  a  favourer  of  Luther.  This  is  quite  untrue. 
"I  would  prefer,"  he  says,  "to  have  Luther  corrected 
rather  than  destroyed  ;  then  I  should  prefer  that  it 
should  be  done  without  any  great  social  tumults. 
Christ    I    acknowledge  ;     Luther    I    know   not.     I    ac- 

'  Ep.  478. 


196      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

knowledge  the  Roman  Church,  which,  in  my  opinion, 
is  CathoHc.  I  praise  those  who  are  on  the  side  of  the 
Roman  Pontiff,  who  is  supported  by  every  good  man."  ^ 

Again,  the  following  year,  writing  on  the  subject  of 
the  invocation  of  Papal  authority  against  Luther,  he 
says  :  "  I  do  not  question  the  origin  of  that  authority, 
which  is  most  certainly  just,  as  in  ancient  times  from 
among  many  priests  equal  in  office  one  was  chosen  as 
the  bishop  ;  so  now  from  the  bishops  it  is  necessary  to 
make  choice  of  one  Pontiff,  not  merely  to  prevent  dis- 
cords, but  to  temper  the  tyrannical  exercise  of  authority 
on  the  part  of  the  other  bishops  and  secular  princes."  ^ 

The  publication  of  Erasmus's  book  against  Luther 
and  of  his  reply  to  von  Hutten  made  little  change, 
however,  in  the  adverse  feeling  manifested  against  him 
by  those  who  were  most  busily  engaged  in  combating 
the  spread  of  Lutheran  opinions.  As  he  wrote  to  King 
Henry  VI IL,  the  noisy  tumults  and  discords  made  him 
long  for  the  end  of  life,  when  he  might  hope  at  least 
to  find  peace.^  Luckily  for  him,  he  still  retained  the 
confidence  of  the  Pope  and  some  of  the  best  church- 
men in  Europe.  Had  he  not  done  so,  the  very  violence 
of  the  attack  against  his  good  name  might  have  driven 
him  out  of  the  Church  in  spite  of  himself.  Kind  words, 
he  more  than  once  said,  would  have  done  more  for  the 
cause  of  peace  in  the  Church  than  all  the  biting  sar- 
casm and  unmeasured  invective  that  was  launched 
against  Luther,  and  those  who,  like  Erasmus,  either 
were,  or  were  supposed  to  be,  associated  with  his  cause. 
Luther  was  not  delicate  about  the  choice  of  his  language 
when    he    had    an    enemy   to    pelt,    but    some    of    the 

1  Ep.  501.  2  Ep_  563. 

^  Ep.  600. 


ERASMUS  197 

preachers  and  pamphlet  writers  on  the  orthodox  side 
were  his  match  in  this  respect.  In  this  way  Erasmus 
puts  the  responsibiHty  for  "the  tragedy"  of  Lutheranism 
upon  the  theologians,  and  in  part  especially  upon  the 
Dominicans  and  Carmelites.  "  Ass,"  "  pig,"  "  sow," 
"  heretic,"  "  antichrist,"  and  "  pest  of  the  world,"  are 
terms  named  by  Erasmus  as  samples  of  the  epithets 
launched  from  the  pulpit,  or  more  deliberately  set  up  in 
type,  as  arguments  against  Luther  and  himself.-^ 

In  writing  to  one  of  the  cardinals  after  the  publica- 
tion of  his  Spongta,  there  is  a  touch  of  sadness  in  his 
complaints,  that  having  been  forced  to  do  battle  with 
the  "  Lutherans  as  against  a  hydra  of  many  heads," 
Catholics  should  still  try  and  make  the  world  believe 
that  he  was  really  a  Lutheran  at  heart.  "  I  have  never," 
he  declares,  "  doubted  about  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Pope,  but  whether  this  supremacy  was  recognised  in 
the  time  of  St.  Jerome,  I  have  my  doubts,  on  account  of 
certain  passages  I  have  noted  in  my  edition  of  St. 
Jerome.  In  the  same  place,  however,  I  have  marked 
what  would  appear  to  make  for  the  contrary  opinion  ; 
and  in  numerous  other  places  I  call  Peter  '  Prince  of 
the  apostolic  order,'  and  the  Roman  Pontiff,  Christ's 
Vicar  and  the  Head  of  His  Church,  giving  him  the 
highest  power  according  to  Christ."  ^ 

Probably  a  more  correct  view  of  Erasmus's  real 
mind  can  hardly  be  obtained  than  in  part  of  a  letter 
already  quoted  (Ep.  501)  addressed  to  Bishop  Marlianus 
of  Tuy  in  Galicia,  on  March  25,  1520.  "I  would 
have  the  Church,"  he  writes,  "  purified,  lest  the  good  in 
it  suffer  by  conjunction  with  the  evil.  In  avoiding  the 
Scylla  of  Luther,  however,  I  would  have  care  taken  to 

^  Ep.  563.  2  Ep.  667. 


198       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

avoid  Charybdis.  If  this  be  sin,  then  I  own  my 
guilt.  I  have  sought  to  save  the  dignity  of  the 
Roman  Pontiff,  the  honour  of  CathoHc  theology,  and 
to  look  to  the  welfare  of  Christendom.  I  have,  as 
yet,  read  no  whole  work  of  Luther,  however  short, 
and  I  have  never  even  in  jest  defended  his  para- 
doxes. Be  assured  that  if  any  movement  is  set  on  foot 
which  is  injurious  to  the  Christian  religion  and  danger- 
ous to  the  public  peace  or  the  supremacy  of  the  Holy 
See,  it  does  not  proceed  from  Erasmus.  ...  In  all  I 
have  written,  I  have  not  deviated  one  hair's-breadth 
from  the  teaching  of  the  Church.  But  every  wise  man 
knows  that  practices  and  teachings  have  been  intro- 
duced into  the  Church  partly  by  custom,  partly  by  the 
canonists,  partly  by  means  of  scholastic  definitions, 
partly  by  the  tricks  and  arts  of  secular  sovereigns,  which 
have  no  sound  sanction.  Many  great  people  have 
begged  me  to  support  Luther,  but  I  have  ever  replied 
that  I  would  be  ready  to  take  his  part  when  he  was  on 
the  Catholic  side.  They  have  asked  me  to  draw  up  a 
formula  of  faith  ;  I  have  said  that  I  know  of  none  save 
the  creed  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  every  one  who 
consults  me  I  urge  to  submit  to  the  authority  of  the 
Pope." ' 

In  many  ways  Erasmus  regarded  the  rise  of  Luther- 
anism  as  the  greatest  misfortune.  Not  only  did  it  tend 
to  make  good  men  suspicious  of  the  general  revival  of 
letters,  with  which  without  reason  they  associated  it,  but 
the  necessity  of  defending  the  Catholic  position  against 
the  assaults  of  the  new  sectaries  naturally  obscured  the 
need  of  reform  within  the  Church  itself,  for  which  far- 
seeing  and  good  men  had  long  been  looking.    To  Bishop 

'  Ep.  501  (Mr.  Fronde's  translation). 


ERASMUS  199 

Tunstall  he  expressed  his  fears  lest  in  pulling  up  the 
tares,  some,  and  perchance  much,  of  the  precious  wheat 
might  perish.  Whilst,  undoubtedly,  there  was  in  Luther's 
work  a  great  deal  that  he  cordially  detested,  there 
was  also  much  that  would  never  have  been  condemned, 
had  the  points  been  calmly  considered  by  learned  men, 
apart  from  the  ferment  of  revolt.  "  This,  however,  I 
promise  you,"  he  adds,  "that  for  my  part  I  will  never 
forsake  the  Church."  ^ 

This  same  sentiment  he  repeats  the  following  year, 
1526:  "From  the  judgment  of  the  Church  I  am  not 
able  to  dissent,  nor  have  I  ever  dissented."  ^  Had  this 
tempest  not  risen  up,  he  said,  in  another  letter  from 
Basle,  he  had  hoped  to  have  lived  long  enough  to  have 
seen  a  general  revival  of  letters  and  theology  returning 
more  and  more  to  the  foundation  of  all  true  divinity, 
Holy  Scripture.  For  his  part,  he  cordially  disliked 
controversy,  and  especially  the  discussion  of  such 
questions  as  "  whether  the  Council  was  above  the  Pope," 
and  such  like.  He  held  that  he  was  himself  in  all 
things  a  sound  Catholic,  and  at  peace  with  the  Pope 
and  his  bishop,  whilst  no  name  was  more  hated  by  the 
Lutherans  than  that  of  Erasmus.^ 

So  much  with  regard  to  the  attitude  of  mind  mani- 
fested by  Erasmus  towards  the  authority  of  the  teaching 
Church,  which  is  the  main  point  of  interest  in  the 
present  inquiry.  His  disposition  will  probably  be  con- 
strued by  some  into  a  critical  opposition  to  much  that 
was  taught  and  practised  ;  but  it  seems  certain  that 
Erasmus  did  not  so  regard  his  own  position.  He  was 
a  reformer  in  the  best  sense,  as  so  many  far-seeing  and 

1  Ep.  793.  "-  Ep.  823. 

3  Ep.  751. 


200      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

spiritual-minded  churchmen  of  those  days  were.  He 
desired  to  better  and  beautify  and  perfect  the  system  he 
found  in  vogue,  and  he  had  the  courage  of  his  convic- 
tions to  point  out  what  he  thought  stood  in  need  of 
change  and  improvement,  but  he  was  no  iconoclast  ; 
he  had  no  desire  to  pull  down  or  root  up  or  destroy 
under  the  plea  of  improvement.  That  he  remained  to 
the  last  the  friend  of  Popes  and  bishops  and  other 
orthodox  churchmen,  is  the  best  evidence,  over  and 
above  his  own  words,  that  his  real  sentiments  were  not 
misunderstood  by  men  who  had  the  interests  of  the 
Church  at  heart,  and  who  looked  upon  him  as  true  and 
loyal,  if  perhaps  a  somewhat  eccentric  and  caustic  son 
of  Holy  Church.  Even  in  his  last  sickness  he  received 
from  the  Pope  proof  of  his  esteem,  for  he  was  given  a 
benefice  of  considerable  value,  and  it  was  hinted  to  him 
that  another  honour,  as  was  commonly  supposed  at  the 
time  nothing  less  than  the  sacred  purple,  was  in  store 
for  him. 

Most  people  are  of  course  chiefly  interested  in  the 
determination  of  Erasmus's  general  attitude  to  the  great 
religious  movement  of  the  age.  In  this  place,  however, 
one  or  two  minor  points  in  his  literary  history  can  hardly 
be  passed  over  in  silence.  His  attitude  to  the  monks  and 
the  religious  Orders  generally,  was  one  of  acknowledged 
hostility,  although  there  are  passages  in  his  writings, 
some  of  which  have  been  already  quoted,  which  seem 
to  show  that  this  hostility  was  neither  so  sweeping  nor 
so  deeply  rooted  as  is  generally  thought.  Still,  it  may 
be  admitted  that  he  has  few  good  words  for  the  religious 
Orders,  and  he  certainly  brings  many  and  even  grave 
accusations  against  their  good  name.  There  is  little 
doubt,  however,  that  much  he  had  to  say  on  the  subject 


ERASMUS  20I 

was,  as  he  himself  tells  us,  said  to  emphasise  abuses  that 
existed,  and  was  not  intended  to  be  taken  as  any  whole- 
sale sweeping  condemnation  of  the  system  of  regular 
life.  Very  frequently  the  Enconium  Morice  has  been 
named  as  the  work  in  which  Erasmus  hits  the  monks 
the  hardest.  Those  who  so  regard  it  can  hardly  have 
read  it  with  attention,  and  most  certainly  they  fail  to 
appreciate  its  spirit.  It  was  composed,  as  we  have  seen, 
at  Sir  Thomas  More's  suggestion,  and  in  his  house  at 
Chelsea  in  15 12,  on  Erasmus's  return  from  Italy.  It 
is  a  satire  on  the  ecclesiastical  manners  and  customs  in 
which  all  abuses  in  turn  come  in  for  their  share  of  sar- 
castic condemnation  ;  superstitions  of  people  as  to 
particular  days  and  images,  superstitions  about  "  magic 
prayers  and  charmlike  rosaries,"  as  to  saints  set  to  this 
or  that  office,  to  cure  the  toothache,  to  discover  stolen 
goods,  &c.,  in  the  first  place  came  under  the  lash  of 
Erasmus's  sarcasm.  Then  come,  in  turn,  doctors  of 
divinity  and  theologians,  "  a  nest  of  men  so  crabbed 
and  morose  "  that  he  has  half  a  mind,  he  says,  to  leave 
them  severely  alone,  "  lest  perchance  they  should  all  at 
once  fall  upon  me  with  six  hundred  conclusions,  driving 
me  to  recant."  They  are  high  and  mighty  and  look 
down  on  other  men,  thinking  of  common  individuals  as 
"  silly  men  like  worms  creeping  on  the  ground,"  and 
startling  ordinary  folk  by  the  variety  of  their  unprac- 
tical discussions  and  questions.  "  Nowadays,"  he  says, 
"  not  baptism,  nor  the  Gospel,  nor  Paul,  nor  Peter, 
nor  Jerome,  nor  Augustine,  nor  yet  Thomas  Aquinas, 
are  able  to  make  men  Christians,  unless  those  Father 
Bachelors  in  divinity  are  pleased  to  subscribe  to  the 
same.  They  require  us  to  address  them  as  Magister 
noster  in  the  biggest  of  letters." 


202       THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

Following   upon   this  treatment    of    the    scholastic 
theologians  come  the  few  pages  devoted  to  monks,  those 
"  whose  trade  and  observance  were  surely  most  miser- 
able and  abject,  unless  I  (Folly)  did  many  ways  assist 
them."     They  are  so  ignorant  (at  least  so  says  Folly), 
that  they  can  hardly  read  their  own  names.     Erasmus 
makes  merry  over  the  office  they  chant,  and  the  beg- 
ging practised  by  the  friars,  and  jeers  amusingly  at  their 
style  of  dressing,  at  their  mode  of  cutting  their  hair,  and 
at  their  sleeping  and  working  by  rule.     "  Yea,"  he  says, 
"  some  of  them  being  of  a  straightened  rule  are  such 
sore  punishers   of   their   flesh,  as  outwardly  they  wear 
nought  but  sackcloth  and  inwardly  no  better  than  fine 
hoUand."      In  a  word,  he  laughs  at  the  general  observ- 
ance of  regular  life,  and  in  one  place  only  passes  a  hint 
that  some  of  their  lives  are  not  so  saintly  as  they  pre- 
tend.    As    a    whole,    however,   the    sarcasm   is  not  so 
bitter  as  that  addressed  to  other  ecclesiastics,  and  even 
to  the   Pope  himself.      In  view  of  Sir  Thomas  More's 
subsequent  explanation  about  the  spirit  of  the  Enconium 
Morice,   there   can    be   no   doubt  that   it   was   intended 
mainly  as  a  playful,  if  somewhat  ill-judged  and  severe, 
lampoon  on   some  patent  abuses,  and  in   no  sense  an 
attack  upon   the   ecclesiastical  system  of   the    Catholic 
Church."  ^ 

^  The  Pope  himself  read  the  Enconium  Morice  and  understood  the  spirit 
of  the  author;  at  least  so  Erasmus  was  told.  He  wrote  at  the  time  "the 
Supreme  Pontiff  has  read  through  Moria:  and  laughed  ;  all  he  said  was,  '  I 
am  glad  to  see  that  friend  Erasmus  is  in  the  Morun,'  and  this  though  I  have 
touched  no  others  so  sharply  as  the  Pontiffs"  (Ep.  p.  1667).  What  Sir 
Thomas  More  thought  about  it  may  be  given  in  his  own  words,  written  some 
years  later.  "  As  touching  Morice,  in  which  Erasmus,  under  the  name  and 
person  of  Moria,  which  word  in  Greek  signifies  'folly,'  merely  touches  and 
reproves  such  faults  and  follies  as  he  found  in  any  kind  of  people  pursuing 
every  state  and  condition,  spiritual  and  temporal,  leaving  almost  none  un- 
touched.    By  this  book,  says  Tyndale,  if  it  were  in  English,  every  man  should 


ERASMUS  203 

One  other  misunderstanding  about  Erasmus's  posi- 
tion in  regard  to  the  revival  of  letters  may  be  here 
noticed.  The  great  scholar  has  been  regarded  as  the 
incarnation  of  the  spirit  of  practical  paganism,  which, 
unfortunately,  was  quickly  the  outcome  of  the  move- 
ment in  Italy,  and  which  at  this  time  gave  so  much 
colour  and  point  to  the  denunciations  of  those  of  the 
opposite  school.  No  view  can  be  more  unjust  to  Eras- 
mus. Though  he  longed  anxiously  for  the  clergy  to 
awake  to  a  sense  of  the  importance  of  studies  in  general, 
of  classical  and  scriptural  studies  in  particular,  there 
was  no  one  who  saw  more  clearly  the  danger  and 
absurdity  of  carrying  the  classical  revivalist  spirit  to 
extremes.  In  fact,  in  his  Ciceronimiay  he  expressly  ridi- 
cules what  he  has  seen  in  Rome  of  the  classical  spirit 
run  mad.  Those  afflicted  by  it,  he  says,  try  to  think 
that  old  Rome  has  returned.  They  speak  of  the 
"  Senate,"  the  "  conscript  fathers,"  the  "  plebs,"  the 
"  chief  auger,"  and  the  <'  college  of  soothsayers,"  "  Pon- 
tifices  Maximi,"  "  Vestals,"  "  triumphs,"  &c.  Nothing 
can  be  more  unlike  the  true  Ciceronian  spirit.  Am  I, 
he  asks,  as  a  Christian  speaking  to  Christians  about  the 

then  well  see  that  I  was  then  far  otherwise  minded  than  I  now  write.  If  this 
be  true,  then  the  more  cause  have  I  to  thank  God  for  the  amendment.  God 
be  thanked  I  never  had  that  mind  in  my  life  to  have  holy  saints'  images  or 
their  holy  relics  out  of  reverence.  Nor  if  there  were  any  such  thing  in  Moricz 
this  could  not  make  any  man  see  that  I  were  myself  of  that  mind,  the  book 
being  made  by  another  man  though  he  were  my  darling  never  so  dear.  How- 
beit,  that  book  of  Moria  doth  indeed  but  jest  upon  abuses  of  such  things.  .  .  . 
But  in  these  days,  in  which  men  by  their  own  default  misconstrue  and  take 
harm  from  the  very  Scripture  of  God,  until  men  better  amend,  if  any  man 
would  now  translate  Morice  into  English,  or  some  work  either  that  I  have 
myself  written  ere  this,  albeit  there  be  no  harm  therein,  folks  being  (as  they 
be)  given  to  take  harm  of  what  is  good,  I  would  not  only  my  darling's  books, 
but  my  own  also,  help  to  burn  them  both  with  my  own  hands,  rather  than 
folk  should  (though  through  their  own  fault)  take  any  harm  of  them."  {English 
Works,  pp.  422-3.) 


204      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

Christian  religion  to  try  and  suppose  I  am  living  in  the 
age  of  Cicero,  and  speak  as  if  I  were  addressing  a  meet- 
ing of  the  conscript  fathers  on  the  Capitol  ?  Am  I  to 
pick  my  words,  choose  my  figures  and  illustrations  from 
Cicero's  speeches  to  the  Senate  ?  How  can  Cicero's 
eloquence  help  me  to  speak  to  a  mixed  audience  of 
virgins,  wives,  and  widows  in  praise  of  fasting,  penance, 
prayer,  almsgiving,  the  sanctity  of  marriage,  the  con- 
tempt of  the  fleeting  pleasures  of  this  world,  or  of  the 
study  of  Holy  Scripture.  No,  a  Christian  orator  dressed 
in  Cicero's  clothes  is  ridiculous.^ 

As  an  illustration  of  the  height  of  absurdity  to 
which  the  madness  of  the  classical  craze  had  brought 
people  in  Rome  in  his  day,  Erasmus  relates  the  story 
of  a  sermon  he  himself  once  heard  in  the  Eternal  City 
during  the  pontificate  of  Pope  Julius  II.  "I  had  been 
invited,"  he  says,  "  a  few  days  before,  by  some  learned 
men  to  be  present  at  this  sermon  (to  be  preached  on 
Good  Friday).  'Take  care  not  to  miss  it,'  they  said, 
*  for  you  will  at  last  be  enabled  to  appreciate  the  tone 
of  the  Roman  language,  spoken  by  a  Roman  mouth.' 
Hence,  with  great  curiosity,  I  went  to  the  church, 
procuring  a  place  near  the  orator  so  as  not  to  miss 
even  one  word.  Julius  II.  was  himself  present,  a  very 
unusual  thing,  probably  on  account  of  his  health.  And 
there  were  also  there  many  cardinals  and  bishops,  and 
in  the  crowd  most  of  the  men  of  letters  who  were  then 
in  Rome. 

"The  exordium  and  peroration  were  nearly  as 
long  as  the  rest  of  the  discourse,  and  they  all  rang 
the  changes  of  praise  of  Julius  II.  He  called  him  the 
almighty   Jove,   and   pictured    him  as   brandishing   the 

*  opera  Omnia  (Froben's  ed.,  1540),  i.  p.  831. 


ERASMUS  205 

trident,  casting  his  thunderbolts  with  his  right  hand, 
and  accomplishing  all  he  willed  by  the  mere  nod  of  his 
head.  Ail  that  had  taken  place  of  late  years  in  Gaul, 
Germany,  Spain,  &c.,  were  but  -the  efforts  of  his  simple 
will.  Then  came  a  hundred  times  repeated,  such 
words  as  '  Rome,'  '  Romans,'  '  Roman  mouth,'  '  Roman 
eloquence,'  &c."  But  what,  asks  Erasmus,  were  all 
these  to  Julius,  bishop  of  the  Christian  religion,  Christ's 
vicegerent,  successor  of  Peter  and  Paul  ?  What  are 
these  to  cardinals  and  bishops  who  are  in  the  places 
of  the  other  apostles  ? 

"The  orator's  design,"  he  continues,  "was  to  re- 
present to  us  Jesus  Christ,  at  first  in  the  agony  of  His 
Passion,  and  then  in  the  glory  of  His  triumph.  To  da 
this,  he  recalled  the  memory  of  Curtius  and  Decius, 
who  had  given  themselves  to  the  gods  for  the  salvation 
of  the  Republic.  He  reminded  us  of  Cecrops,  of 
Menelaus,  of  Iphigenia,  and  of  other  noble  victims 
who  had  valued  their  lives  less  than  the  honour  and 
welfare  of  their  country.  Public  gratitude  (he  con- 
tinued, in  tears  and  in  most  lugubrious  tones)  had 
always  surrounded  these  noble  and  generous  characters 
with  its  homage,  sometimes  raising  gilded  statues  to 
their  memory  in  the  forum  ;  sometimes  decreeing 
them  even  divine  honours,  whilst  Jesus  Christ,  for  all 
His  benefits,  had  received  no  other  reward  but  death. 
The  orator  then  went  on  to  compare  our  Saviour,  wha 
had  deserved  so  well  of  His  country,  to  Phocion  and  to 
Socrates,  who  were  compelled  to  drink  hemlock  though 
accused  of  no  crime ;  to  Epaminondas,  driven  to  defend 
himself  against  envy  roused  by  his  noble  deeds  ;  to 
Scipio  and  to  Aristides,  whom  the  Athenians  were  tired 
of  hearing  called  the  '  Just  one,'  &c. 


2o6      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

"  I  ask,  can  anything  be  imagined  colder  and  more 
inept  ?  Yet,  over  all  his  efforts,  the  preacher  sweated 
blood  and  water  to  rival  Cicero.  In  brief,  my  Roman 
preacher  spoke  Roman  so  well  that  I  heard  nothing 
about  the  death  of  Christ.^  If  Cicero  had  lived  in  our 
days,"  asks  Erasmus,  "  would  he  not  think  the  name  of 
God  the  Father  as  elegant  as  Jupiter  the  almighty  ? 
Would  he  think  it  less  elegant  to  speak  of  Jesus  Christ 
than  of  Romulus,  or  of  Scipio  Africanus,  of  Quintus 
Curtius,  or  of  Marcus  Decius  ?  Would  he  think  the 
name  of  the  Catholic  Church  less  illustrious  than  that 
of  '  Conscript  Fathers,'  '  Quirites,'  or  '  Senate  and  people 
of  Rome'?  He  would  speak  to  us  of  faith  in  Christ, 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  the  Holy  Trinity  ?  "  &c.^ 

At  considerable  length  Erasmus  pours  out  the  vials 
of  his  scorn  upon  those  who  act  so  foolishly  under  the 
influence  of  the  false  classical  spirit.  He  points  out 
the  danger  to  be  avoided.  People,  he  says,  go  into 
raptures  over  pagan  antiquities,  and  laugh  at  others 
who  are  enthusiastic  about  Christian  archaeology.  "We 
kiss,  venerate,  almost  adore  a  piece  of  antiquity,"  he 
says,  "  and  mock  at  relics  of  the  Apostles.  If  any  one 
finds  something  from  the  twelve  tables,  who  does  not 
consider  it  worthy  of  the  most  holy  place  ?  And  the 
laws  written  by  the  finger  of  God,  who  venerates,  who 
kisses  them  ?  How  delighted  we  are  with  a  medal 
stamped  with  the  head  of  Hercules,  or  of  Mercury,  or 
of  Fortune,  or  of  Victory,  or  of  Alexander  the  Great,  or 
one  of  the  Caesars,^  and  we  deride  those  who  treasure 

1  Pp.  832-33.  ^  P.  837. 

*  A  case  in  point  was  the  finding  of  the  celebrated  statue  of  the  Laocoon 
on  January  14,  1506.  This  discovery  was  accidentally  made  in  a  vine- 
yard, near  Santa  Maria  Maggiore,  and  no  statue  ever  produced  so  general 
and  so  profound  an  emotion  as  the  uncovering  of  this  work  of  art  did  upon 


ERASMUS  207 

the  wood  of  the  cross  or  images  of  the  Virgin  and 
saints  as  superstitious.^  If  in  deahng  with  his  subject 
Erasmus  may  appear  to  exaggerate  the  evil  he  con- 
demns, this  much  is  clear,  that  his  advocacy  of  letters 
and  learning,  however  strenuous  and  enthusiastic,  was 
tempered  by  a  sense  of  the  paramount  importance  of 
the  Christian  spirit  in  the  pursuit  of  science. 

the  learned  world  of  Rome.  The  whole  city  flocked  out  to  see  it,  and  the 
road  to  the  vineyard  was  blocked  day  and  night  by  the  crowds  of  cardinals 
and  people  waiting  to  look  at  it.  "One  would  have  said,"  writes  a  con- 
temporary, "that  it  was  a  Jubilee."  And  even  to-day  the  visitor  to  the 
Ara  Cceli  may  read  on  the  tomb  of  Felice  de  Fredis,  the  happy  owner  of  the 
vineyard,  the  promise  of  "immortality,"  ob  proprias  virtutes  et  repertum 
Laocohontis  diviniim  simulachrum  (I.  Klaczki,  Jules  //. ,  p.  115).  It  is  not 
at  all  improbable  that  in  the  above  passage  Erasmus  was  actually  thinking  of 
the  delirium  caused  by  the  finding  of  this  statue. 
1  Ibid.,  p.  838. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  LUTHERAN  INVASION 

It  is  not  uncommonly  asserted  that  the  reUgious 
changes  in  England,  although  for  convenience'  sake 
dated  from  the  rejection  of  Papal  supremacy,  were 
in  reality  the  outcome  of  long-continued  and  ever- 
increasing  dissatisfaction  with  the  then  existing  ecclesi- 
astical system.  The  Pope's  refusal  to  grant  Henry  his 
wished-for  divorce  from  Katherine,  we  are  told,  was 
a  mere  incident,  which  at  most,  precipitated  by  a 
short   while   what   had    long    been   inevitable.^     Those 

^  For  example,  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Hutton  states  in  the  Guardian,  January 
25,  1899,  as  the  result  of  his  mature  studies  upon  the  Reformation  period, 
that  "  the  so-called  divorce  question  had  very  little  indeed  to  do  with  the 
Reformation."  Mr.  James  Gairdner,  who  speaks  with  all  the  authority  of  a 
full  and  complete  knowledge  of  the  State  papers  of  this  period,  in  a  letter 
to  a  subsequent  number  of  the  Guardian,  says,  ' '  When  a  gentleman  of 
Mr.  Hutton's  attainments  is  able  seriously  to  tell  us  this,  I  think  it  is. 
really  time  to  ask  people  to  put  two  and  two  together,  and  say  whether 
the  sum  can  be  anything  but  four.  It  may  be  disagreeable  to  trace  the 
Reformation  to  such  a  very  ignoble  origin,  but  facts,  as  the  Scottish  poet 
says,  are  fellows  you  can't  coerce.  .  .  .  and  won't  bear  to  be  disputed." 
What  "  we  call  the  Reformation  in  England  .  .  .  was  the  result  of  Henry 
VIII.'s  quarrel  with  the  Court  of  Rome  on  the  subject  of  his  divorce, 
and  the  same  results  could  not  possibly  have  come  about  in  any  other 
way."  When  "  Henry  VIII.  found  himself  disappointed  in  the  expectation, 
which  he  had  ardently  cherished  for  a  while,  that  he  could  manage,  by  hook 
or  by  crook,  to  obtain  from  the  See  of  Rome  something  like  an  ecclesiastical 
licence  for  bigamy,"  he  took  matters  into  his  own  hands,  "and  self-willed  as 
he  was,  never  did  self-will  lead  him  into  such  a  tremendous  and  dangerous 
undertaking  as  in  throwing  off  the  Pope.  How  much  this  was  resented 
among  the  people,  what  secret  communications  there  were  between  leading 
noblemen  with  the  imperial  ambassador,  strongly  urging  the  emperor  to 
invade  England,  and  deliver  the  people  from  a  tyranny  from  which  they  were 
unable  to  free  themselves,  we  know  in  these  days  as  we  did  not  know  before." 


THE   LUTHERAN    INVASION  209 

who  take  this  view  are  bound  to  believe  that  the 
Church  in  England  in  the  early  sixteenth  century  was 
honeycombed  by  disbelief  in  the  traditional  teachings, 
and  that  men  were  only  too  ready  to  welcome  emanci- 
pation. What  then  is  the  evidence  for  this  picture  of 
the  religious  state  of  men's  minds  in  England  on  the 
eve  of  the  Reformation  ? 

It  is,  indeed,  not  improbable  that  up  and  down 
the  country  there  were,  at  this  period,  some  dissatisfied 
spirits  ;  some  who  would  eagerly  seize  any  opportunity 
to  free  themselves  from  the  restraints  which  no  longer 
appealed  to  their  consciences,  and  from  teachings  they 
had  come  to  consider  as  mere  ecclesiastical  formalism. 
A  Venetian  traveller  of  intelligence  and  observation, 
who  visited  the  country  at  the  beginning  of  the  century, 
whilst  struck  with  the  Catholic  practices  and  with  the 
general  manifestations  of  English  piety  he  witnessed, 
understood  that  there  were  "  many  who  have  various 
opinions  concerning  religion."  ^  But  so  far  as  there 
is  evidence  at  all,  it  points  to  the  fact,  that  of  religious 
unrest,  in  any  real  sense,  there  could  have  been  very 
little  in  the  country  generally.  It  is,  of  course,  im- 
possible to  suppose  that  any  measurable  proportion  of 
the  people  could  have  openly  rejected  the  teaching  of 
the  Church  or  have  been  even  crypto-LoUards,  without 
there  being  satisfactory  evidence  of  the  fact  forthcoming 
at  the  present  day. 

The  similarity  of  the  doctrines  held  by  the  English 
Reformers  of  the  sixteenth  century  with  many  of  those 
taught  by  the  followers  of  Wycliffe  has,  indeed,  led  some 
writers  to  assume  a  direct  connection  between  them 
which  certainly  did  not  exist  in  fact.     So  far  as  Eng- 

1  Camden  Society,  p.  163. 


2IO      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

land  at  least  is  concerned,  there  is  no  justification  for 
assuming  for  the  Reformation  a  line  of  descent  from  any 
form  of  English  Lollardism.  It  is  impossible  to  study 
the  century  which  preceded  the  overthrow  of  the  old 
religious  system  in  England  without  coming  to  the 
conclusion  that  as  a  body  the  Lollards  had  been  long 
extinct,  and  that  as  individuals,  scattered  over  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  without  any  practical 
principle  of  cohesion,  the  few  who  clung  to  the  tenets 
of  Wycliffe  were  powerless  to  effect  any  change  of 
opinion  in  the  overwhelming  mass  of  the  population 
at  large.  Lollardry,  to  the  Englishman  of  the  day,  was 
"  heresy,"  and  any  attempt  to  teach  it  was  firmly 
repressed  by  the  ecclesiastical  authority,  supported  by 
the  strong  arm  of  the  State  ;  but  it  was  also  an  offence 
against  the  common  feeling  of  the  people,  and  there  can 
be  no  manner  of  doubt  that  its  repression  was  popular. 
The  genius  of  Milton  enabled  him  to  see  the  fact  that 
"  Wycliffe's  preaching  was  soon  damped  and  stifled  by 
the  Pope  and  prelates  for  six  or  seven  kings'  reigns," 
and  Mr.  James  Gairdner,  whose  studies  in  this  period 
of  our  national  history  enable  him  to  speak  with 
authority,  comes  to  the  same  conclusion.  "  Notwith- 
standing the  darkness  that  surrounds  all  subjects  con- 
nected with  the  history  of  the  fifteenth  century,"  he 
writes,  "we  may  venture  pretty  safely  to  affirm  that 
Lollardry  was  not  the  beginning  of  modern  Protestant- 
ism. Plausible  as  it  seems  to  regard  Wycliffe  as  '  the 
morning  star  of  the  Reformation,'  the  figure  conveys 
an  impression  which  is  altogether  erroneous.  WycHffe's 
real  influence  did  not  long  survive  his  own  day,  and 
so  far  from  Lollardry  having  taken  any  deep  root  among 
the    English   people,   the   traces    of  it   had  wholly  dis- 


THE   LUTHERAN   INVASION  211 

appeared  long  before  the  great  revolution  of  which  it 
is  thought  to  be  the  forerunner.  At  all  events,  in  the 
rich  historical  material  for  the  beginning  of  Henry 
VIII.'s  reign,  supplied  by  the  correspondence  of  the 
time,  we  look  in  vain  for  a  single  indication  that  any 
such  thing  as  a  Lollard  sect  existed.  The  movement 
had  died  a  natural  death  ;  from  the  time  of  Oldcastle 
it  sank  into  insignificance.  Though  still  for  a  while 
considerable  in  point  of  numbers,  it  no  longer  counted 
among  its  adherents  any  men  of  note  ;  and  when 
another  generation  had  passed  away  the  serious  action 
of  civil  war  left  no  place  for  the  crotchets  of 
fanaticism."  ^ 

On  the  only  evidence  available,  the  student  of  the 
reign  of  Henry  VII.  and  of  that  of  Henry  VIII.  up  to 
the  breach  with  Rome  is  bound  to  come  to  the  same 
conclusion  as  to  the  state  of  the  English  Church.  If 
we  except  manifestations  of  impatience  with  the  Pope 
and  Curia,  which  could  be  paralleled  in  any  age  and 
country,  and  which  were  rather  on  the  secular  side  than 
on  the  religious,  there  is  nothing  that  would  make  us  think 
that  England  was  not  fully  loyal  in  mind  and  heart  to  the 
established  ecclesiastical  system.     In  fact,  as  Mr.  Brewer 

^  The  same  high  authority,  in  a  letter  to  the  Gnardiajt,  March  i,  1899, 
says,  "  People  will  tell  you,  of  course,  that  the  seeds  of  the  Reformation  were 
sown  before  Heniy  VIII.'s  days,  and  particularly  that  it  was  Wycliffe  who 
brought  the  great  movement  on.  I  should  be  sorry  to  depreciate  Wycliffe, 
who  did  undoubtedly  bring  about  a  great  movement  in  his  day,  though  a 
careful  estimate  of  that  movement  is  still  a  desideratum.  Even  in  theology 
the  cardinal  doctrine  of  the  Reformation — justification  by  faith — is  in  Wycliffe, 
I  should  say,  conspicuous  by  its  absence.  But,  whatever  may  be  the  theo- 
logical debt  of  England  to  Wycliffe  at  the  present  day,  twenty  Wycliffes, 
all  highly  popular,  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  would  not  have 
brought  about  a  Reformation  like  that  under  which  we  have  lived  during  the 
last  centuries.  That  was  a  thing  which  could  only  have  been  effected  by- 
royal  power — as  in  England,  or  by  a  subversion  of  royal  authority  through 
the  medium  of  successful  rebellion — as  in  Scotland." 


212       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

says,  everything  proves  that  ''the  general  body  of  the 
people  had  not  as  yet  learned  to  question  the  established 
doctrines  of  the  Church.  For  the  most  part,  they  paid 
their  Peter  pence  and  heard  mass,  and  did  as  their 
fathers  had  done  before  them."  ^ 

It  may  be  taken,  therefore,  for  granted  that  the 
seeds  of  religious  discord  were  not  the  product  of  the 
country  itself,  nor,  so  far  as  we  have  evidence  on  the 
subject  at  all,  does  it  appear  that  the  soil  of  the  country 
was  in  any  way  specially  adapted  for  its  fructification. 
The  work,  both  of  raising  the  seed  and  of  scattering  it 
over  the  soil  of  England,  must  be  attributed,  if  the  plain 
facts  of  history  are  to  be  believed,  to  Germans  and  the 
handful  of  English  followers  of  the  German  Reformers. 
If  we  would  rightly  understand  the  religious  situation 
in  England  at  the  commencement  of  the  Reformation, 
it  is  of  importance  to  inquire  into  the  methods  of  attack 
adopted  in  the  Lutheran  invasion,  and  to  note  the  chief 
doctrinal  points  which  were  first  assailed. 

Very  shortly  after  the  religious  revolt  had  established 
itself  in  Germany,  the  first  indications  of  a  serious  attempt 
to  undermine  the  traditional  faith  of  the  English  Church 
became  manifest  in  England.  Roger  Edgworth,a  preacher 
during  the  reigns  of  Henry  and  Queen  Mary,  says  that 
his  "  long  labours  have  been  cast  in  most  troublesome 
times  and  most  encumbered  with  errors  and  heresies, 
change  of  minds  and  schisms  that  ever  was  in  the 
realm.  .  .  .  Whilst  I  was  a  young  student  in  divinity," 
he  continues,  *'  Luther's  heresies  rose  and  were  scattered 
here  in  this  realm,  which,  in  less  space  than  a  man 
would  think,  had  so  sore  infected  the  Christian  folk, 
first  the  youth  and  then  the  elders,  where  the  children 

1  Henry  VIII.,  i.  p.  51. 


THE   LUTHERAN   INVASION  213 

could  set  their  fathers  to  school,  that  the  king's 
Majesty  and  all  Christian  clerks  in  the  realm  had  much 
ado  to  extinguish  them.  This  they  could  not  so  per- 
fectly quench,  but  that  ever  since,  when  they  might 
have  any  maintenance  by  man  or  woman  of  great 
power,  they  burst  forth  afresh,  even  like  fire  hid  under 
chaff."  ^ 

Sir  Thomas  More,  when  Chancellor  in  1532, 
attributed  the  rapid  spread  of  what  to  him  and  most 
people  of  his  day  in  England  was  heresy,  to  the 
flood  of  literature  which  was  poured  forth  over  the 
country  by  the  help  of  printing.  "  We  have  had,"  he 
writes,  "  some  years  of  late,  plenteous  of  evil  books. 
For  they  have  grown  up  so  fast  and  sprung  up 
so  thick,  full  of  pestilent  errors  and  pernicious 
heresies,  that  they  have  infected  and  killed,  I  fear 
me,  more  simple  souls  than  the  famine  of  the  dear 
years  have  destroyed  bodies."  " 

We  are  not  left  in  ignorance  as  to  the  books  here 
referred  to,  as  some  few  years  previously  the  bishops 
of  England  had  issued  a  list  of  the  prohibited  volumes. 
Thus,  in  October  1526,  Bishop  Tunstall  ordered  that 
in  London  people  should  be  warned  not  to  read  the 
works  in  question,  but  that  all  who  possessed  them 
should  deliver  them  over  to  the  bishop's  officials  in 
order  that  they  might  be  destroyed  as  pernicious  litera- 
ture. The  list  included  several  works  of  Luther,  three 
or  four  of  Tyndale,  a  couple  of  Zwingle,  and  several 
isolated  works,  such  as  the  Supplication  of  Beggars,  and 
the  Dyalo^ue  bctivcen  the  Father  and  the  Son^ 


^  Roger  Edgworth,  Sermons  (London  :  Robert  Caly,  1557),  preface. 

"  English  Works,  p.  339. 

3  Strype,  Eccl.  Mem.  (ed.  1822),  I.  i.  p.  254. 


214      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

In  1530  the  king  by  proclamation  forbade  the  read- 
ing or  possession  of  some  eighty-five  works  of  Wycliffe, 
Luther,  GEcolampadius,  Zwingle,  Pomeranus,  Biicer, 
WesseHus,  and  indeed  the  German  divines  generally, 
under  the  heading  of  "  books  of  the  Lutheran  sect  or 
faction  conveyed  into  the  city  of  London."  Besides 
these  Latin  treatises,  the  prohibition  included  many 
English  tracts,  such  as  A  book  of  the  old  God  and  the  new, 
the  Burying  of  the  Mass,  Frith's  Disputation  concerning 
Purgatory,  and  several  prayer-books  intended  to  pro- 
pagate the  new  doctrines,  such  as  Godly  prayers;  Matins 
and  Evensong  with  the  seven  Psalms  and  other  heavenly 
psalms  with  commendations;  the  Hortulus  Animce  in 
English,^  and  the  Pritner  in  English. 

In  his  proclamation  Henry  VIII.  speaks  of  the 
determination  of  the  English  nation  in  times  past  to 
be  true  to  the  Catholic  faith  and  to  defend  the  country 
against  "wicked  sects  of  heretics  and  Lollards,  who, 
by  perversion  of  Holy  Scripture,  do  induce  erroneous 
opinions,  sow  sedition  amongst  Christian  people,  and 
disturb  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  Christian  realms, 
as  lately  happened  in  some  parts  of  Germany,  where, 
by  the  procurement  and  sedition  of  Martin  Luther  and 
other  heretics,  were  slain  an  infinite  number  of  Christian 
people."  To  prevent  like  misfortunes  happening  in 
England,  he  orders  prompt  measures  to  be  taken  to 
put  a  stop  to  the  circulation  of  books  in  English  and 

1  This  book  was  apparently  condemned  for  reflecting  on  the  king's 
divorce  rather  than  for  its  Lutheran  tendencies.  "The  Soul's  Garden,"  as 
Bishop  Tunstall  calls  it,  was  printed  abroad,  and  "very  many  lately  brought 
into  the  realm,  chiefly  into  London  and  into  other  haven  towns,"  The 
objectionable  portion  was  contained  in  "  a  declaration  made  in  the  kalendar 
of  the  said  book,  about  the  end  of  the  month  of  August,  upon  the  day  of  the 
decollation  of  St,  John  Baptist,  to  show  the  cause  of  why  he  was  beheaded." 
<Strype,  ut  supra,  ii.  p.  274.) 


THE   LUTHERAN    INVASION  215 

other  languages,  which  teach  things  "  intolerable  to  the 
clean  ears  of  any  good  Christian  man."  ^ 

By  the  king's  command,  the  convocation  of  Canter- 
bury drew  up  a  list  of  prohibited  heretical  books.  In 
the  first  catalogue  of  fifty-three  tracts  and  volumes, 
there  is  no  mention  of  any  work  of  Wycliffe,  and  besides 
some  volumes  which  had  come  from  the  pens  of  Tyn- 
dale,  Frith,  and  Roy,  who  were  acknowledged  disciples 
of  Luther,  the  rest  are  all  the  compositions  of  the  Ger- 
man Reformers.  The  same  may  be  said  of  a  supple- 
mentary list  of  tracts,  the  authors  of  which  were 
unknown.  All  these  are  condemned  as  containing 
false  teaching,  plainly  contrary  to  the  Catholic  faith, 
and  the  bishops  add  :  "  Moreover,  following  closely 
in  the  footsteps  of  our  fathers,  we  prohibit  all  from 
seUing,  giving,  reading,  distributing,  or  publishing  any 
tract,  booklet,  pamphlet,  or  book,  which  translates  or 
interprets  the  Holy  Scripture  in  the  vernacular.  .  .  . 
or  even  knowingly  to  keep  such  volumes  without  the 
licence  of  their  diocesan  in  writing."  ^ 

About  the  same  time  a  committee  of  bishops,  in- 
cluding Archbishop  Warham  and  Bishop  Tunstall  was 
appointed  to  draw  up  a  list  of  some  of  the  principal 
errors  contained  in  the  prohibited  works  of  English 
heretics  beyond  the  sea.  The  king  had  heard  that 
"  many  books  in  the  English  tongue  containing  many 
detestable  errors  and  damnable  opinions,  printed  in 
parts  beyond  the  sea,"  were  being  brought  into  Eng- 
land and  spread  abroad.  He  was  unwilling  that  "  such 
evil  seed  sown  amongst  his  people  (should)  so  take  root 
that  it  might  overgrow  the  corn  of  the  Catholic  doctrine 

^  Wilkins,  Concilia,  iii.  p.  737. 
2  Ibid.,  720. 


2i6       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

before  sprung  up  in  the  souls  of  his  subjects,"  and  he 
consequently  ordered  this  examination.  This  has  been 
done  and  the  errors  noted,  "  albeit  many  more  there  be 
in  those  books  ;  which  books  totally  do  swarm  full  of 
heresies  and  detestable  opinions."  The  books  thus 
examined  and  noted  were  eight  in  number  :  The  Wicked 
Mammon ;  the  Obedience  of  Christian  man ;  the  Revelation 
of  Antichrist ;  ihe  Sum  of  Scripture  ;  the  Book  of  Beggars  ; 
the  Kalendar  of  the  Prymer ;  the  Prymcr,  and  an  Exposi- 
tion unto  the  Seventh  Chapter  of  i  Corinthians.  From 
these  some  hundreds  of  propositions  were  culled  which 
contradicted  the  plain  teaching  of  the  Church  in  matters 
of  faith  and  morality.  In  this  condemnation,  as  the 
king  states  in  his  directions  to  preachers  to  publish  the 
same,  the  commission  were  unanimous.-^ 

The  attack  on  the  traditional  teachings  of  the 
Church,  moreover,  was  not  confined  to  unimportant 
points.  From  the  first,  high  and  fundamental  doctrines, 
as  it  seemed  to  men  in  those  days,  were  put  in  peril. 
The  works  sent  forth  by  the  advocates  of  the  change 
speak  for  themselves,  and,  when  contrasted  with  those 
of  Luther,  leave  no  room  for  doubt  that  they  were 
founded  on  them,  and  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  the 
leader  of  the  revolt,  although,  as  was  inevitable  in 
such  circumstances,  in  particulars  the  disciples  proved 
themselves  in  advance  of  their  master.  Writing  in 
1546,  Dr.  Richard  Smythe  contrasts  the  old  times, 
when  the  faith  was  respected,  with  the  then  state  of 
mental  unrest  in  religious  matters.  "  In  our  days," 
he  writes,  "  not  a  few  things,  nor  of  small  importance, 
but  (alack  the  more  is  the  pity)  even  the  chiefest  and 
most    weighty   matters   of    our    religion    and   faith   are 

^  Wilkins,  Concilia,  iii.  p.  727. 


THE   LUTHERAN   INVASION  217 

called  in  question,  babbled,  talked,  and  jangled  upon 
(reasoned  I  cannot  nor  ought  not  to  call  it).  These 
matters  in  time  past  (when  reason  had  place  and  virtue 
with  learning  was  duly  regarded,  yea,  and  vice  with 
insolency  was  generally  detested  and  abhorred)  were 
held  in  such  reverence  and  honour,  in  such  esteem  and 
dignity,  yea,  so  received  and  embraced  by  all  estates, 
that  it  was  not  in  any  wise  sufferable  that  tag  and  rag, 
learned  and  unlearned,  old  and  young,  wise  and  foolish, 
boys  and  wenches,  master  and  man,  tinkers  and  tilers, 
colHers  and  coblers,  with  other  such  raskabilia  might  at 
their  pleasure  rail  and  jest  (for  what  is  it  else  they  now 
do  ?)  against  everything  that  is  good  and  virtuous, 
against  all  things  that  are  expedient  and  profitable, 
not  sparing  any  Sacrament  of  the  Church  or  ordi- 
nance of  the  same,  no  matter  how  laudable,  decent, 
or  fitting  it  has  been  regarded  in  times  past,  or  how 
much  it  be  now  accepted  by  good  and  Catholic  men. 
In  this  way,  both  by  preaching  and  teaching  (if  it  so 
ought  to  be  called),  playing,  writing,  printing,  singing, 
and  (Oh,  good  Lord  !)  in  how  many  other  ways  besides, 
divers  of  our  age,  being  their  own  schoolmasters,  or 
rather  scholars  of  the  devil,  have  not  forborne  or  feared 
to  speak  and  write  against  the  most  excellent  and  most 
blessed  Sacrament  of  the  Altar,  affirming  that  the  said 
Sacrament  is  nothing  more  than  a  bare  figure,  and  that 
there  is  not  in  the  same  Sacrament  the  very  body  and 
blood  of  our  blessed  Saviour  and  Redeemer,  Jesus 
Christ,  but  only  a  naked  sign,  a  token,  a  memorial  and 
a  remembrance  only  of  the  same,  if  they  take  it  for  so 
much  even  and  do  not  call  it  (as  they  are  wont  to  do) 
an  idol  and  very  plain  idolatry."  ^ 

'  Richard  Smythe,  D.D.,  The  assertion  and  defence  of  the  Sacrament  of  the 
Altar,  1546,  f.  3. 


2i8       THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

As  to  the  date  of  the  introduction  of  these  heretical 
views  into  England,  Sir  Thomas  More  entirely  agreed 
with  Dr.  Smythe,  the  writer  just  quoted.  He  places 
the  growth  of  these  ideas  in  the  circulation  of  books  by 
Tyndale,  Frith,  and  Barnes,  and  even  as  late  as  1533, 
declares  that  the  number  of  those  who  had  accepted 
the  new  teaching  was  grossly  exaggerated.  He  states 
his  behef  that  '<  the  realm  is  not  full  of  heretics,  and  it 
has  in  it  but  a  few,  though  that  few  be  indeed  over 
many  and  grown  more  also  by  negligence  in  some  part 
than  there  has  been  in  some  late  years  past."  ^  It  was, 
indeed,  part  of  the  strategy  pursued  by  the  innovators 
in  religion  to  endeavour  to  make  the  movement  appear 
more  important  than  it  had  any  claim  to  be.  It  is, 
writes  More,  the  "  policy  "  of  "  these  heretics  who  call 
themselves  '  evangelical  brethren,' "  to  make  their 
number  appear  larger  than  it  is.  "  Some  pot-headed 
apostles  they  have  that  wander  about  the  realm  into 
sundry  shires,  for  whom  every  one  has  a  different  name 
in  every  shire,  and  some,  peradventure,  in  corners  here 
and  there  they  bring  into  the  brotherhood.  But  whether 
they  get  any  or  none  they  do  not  hesitate  to  lie  when 
they  come  home,  and  say  that  more  than  half  of  every 
shire  is  of  their  own  sect.  Boast  and  brag  these  blessed 
brethren  never  so  fast,  they  feel  full  well  themselves 
that  they  be  too  feeble  in  what  country  so  ever  they 
be  strongest.  For  if  they  thought  themselves  able  to 
meet  and  match  the  Catholics  they  would  not,  I  ween, 
lie  still  at  rest  for  three  days." 

"  For  in  all  places  where  heresies  have  sprung  up 
hitherto  so  hath  it  proved  yet.  And  so  negligently 
might  these  things  be  handled,  that  at  length  it  might 

1  English  Works,  p.  940. 


THE   LUTHERAN   INVASION  219 

happen  so  here.  And  verily  they  look  (far  as  they  be 
yet  from  the  power)  for  it,  and  some  of  them  have  not 
hesitated  to  say  this,  and  some  to  write  it,  too.  For  I 
read  the  letter  myself  which  was  cast  into  the  palace  of 
the  Right  Reverend  Father  in  God,  Cuthbert,  now 
Bishop  of  Durham,  but  then  Bishop  of  London,  in 
which  among  other  bragging  word  .  .  .  were  these 
words  contained  :  *  There  will  once  come  a  day.'  And 
out  of  question  that  day  they  long  for  but  also  daily 
look  for,  and  would,  if  they  were  not  too  weak,  not  fail 
to  find  it.  And  they  have  the  greater  hope  because 
.  .  .  they  see  that  it  begins  to  grow  into  a  custom  that 
among  good  Catholic  folk  they  are  suffered  to  talk 
unchecked."  For  good  men  in  their  own  minds  indeed 
think  the  Catholic  faith  so  strong  that  heretics  with  all 
their  babbling  will  never  be  able  to  vanquish  it,  "  and  in 
this  undoubtedly  their  mind  is  not  only  good,  but  also 
very  true.  But  they  do  not  look  far  enough.  For  as 
the  sea  will  never  surround  and  overwhelm  all  the  land, 
and  yet  has  eaten  it  in  many  places,  and  swallowed 
whole  countries  up  and  made  many  places  sea,  which 
sometime  were  well-inhabited  lands,  and  has  lost  part 
of  its  own  possession  again  in  other  places,  so,  though 
the  faith  of  Christ  shall  never  be  overwhelmed  with 
heresy,  nor  the  gate  of  hell  prevail  against  Christ's 
Church,  yet  as  in  some  places  it  winneth  in  new  peoples, 
so  by  negligence  in  some  places  the  old  may  be  lost."  1 
Sir  Thomas  More  is  all  for  vigilance  on  the  part  of 
the  authorities.  He  likens  those  who  are  in  power  and 
office  to  the  guardians  of  a  fertile  field  who  are  bound 
to  prevent  the  sowing  of  tares  on  their  master's  land  ; 
and  the  multiplication  of  evil  books  and  their  circula- 

^  English  IVorks,  p.  921. 


220       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

tion  among  the  people,  cannot,  in  his  opinion,  have  any 
other  effect  than  to  prevent  the  fertihsation  of  the  good 
seed  of  God's  word  in  the  hearts  of  many.  "  These  new 
teachers,"  he  says,  "  despise  Christ's  Sacraments,  which 
are  His  holy  ordinances  and  a  great  part  of  Christ's  New 
Law  and  Testament.  Who  can  place  less  value  on  His 
commandments  than  they  who,  upon  the  boldness  of 
faith  only,  set  all  good  works  at  naught,  and  little  con- 
sider the  danger  of  their  evil  deeds  upon  the  boldness 
that  a  bare  faith  and  slight  repentance,  without  shrift  or 
penance,  suffices,  and  that  no  vow  made  to  God  can 
bind  a  man  to  live  chastely  or  hinder  a  monk  from 
marriage.  All  these  things,  with  many  pestilent  errors 
besides,  these  abominable  books  of  Tyndale  and  his 
fellows  teach  us.  Of  these  books  of  heresies  there  are 
so  many  made  within  these  few  years,  what  by  Luther 
himself  and  by  his  fellows,  and  afterwards  by  the  new 
sects  sprung  out  of  his,  which,  like  the  children  of 
Vippara,  would  now  gnaw  out  their  mother's  belly,  that 
the  bare  names  of  those  books  were  almost  enough  to 
make  a  book.  Some  of  every  sort  of  those  books  are 
brought  into  this  realm  and  kept  in  '  hucker  mucker  ' 
by  some  shrewd  masters  who  keep  them  for  no  good. 
Besides  the  Latin,  French,  and  German  books  of  which 
these  evil  sects  have  put  forth  an  innumerable  number, 
there  are  some  made  in  the  English  tongue.  First, 
Tyndale's  English  Testament,  father  of  them  all  by  reason 
of  his  false  translating,  and  after  that,  the  Five  Books  of 
Moses  translated  by  the  same  man  ;  we  need  not  doubt 
in  what  manner  and  for  what  purpose.  Then  you  have 
his  Introduction  to  Saint  Paul's  Epistle,  with  which  he  in- 
troduces his  readers  to  a  false  understanding  of  Saint 
Paul,  making  them  believe,  among  many  other  heresies, 


THE   LUTHERAN   INVASION  221 

that  Saint  Paul  held  that  faith  only  was  always  sufficient 
for  salvation,  and  that  men's  good  works  were  worth 
nothing  and  could  not  deserve  thanks  or  reward  in 
heaven,  although  they  were  done  in  grace.  .  .  .  Then 
we  have  from  Tyndale  The  Wicked  Mammonaj  by  which 
many  a  man  has  been  beguiled  and  brought  into  many 
wicked  heresies,  which  in  good  faith  would  be  to  me  a 
matter  of  no  little  wonder,  for  there  was  never  a  more 
foolish  frantic  book,  were  it  not  that  the  devil  is  ever 
ready  to  put  out  the  eyes  of  those  who  are  content  to 
become  blind.  Then  we  have  Tyndale's  Book  of  Obedi- 
ence, by  which  we  are  taught  to  disobey  the  teaching  of 
Christ's  Catholic  Church  and  set  His  holy  Sacraments 
at  naught.  Then  we  have  from  Tyndale  the  First 
Epistle  of  Saint  John,  expounded  in  such  wise  that  I  dare 
say  that  blessed  Apostle  had  rather  his  Epistle  had 
never  been  put  in  writing  than  that  his  holy  words 
should  be  believed  by  all  Christian  people  in  such  a 
sense.  Then  we  have  the  Supplication  of  Beggars,  a 
piteous  beggarly  book,  in  which  he  would  have  all  the 
souls  in  Purgatory  beg  all  about  for  nothing.  Then  we 
have  from  George  Joye,  otherwise  called  Clarke,  a 
Goodly  Godly  Epistle,  wherein  he  teaches  divers  other 
heresies,  but  specially  that  men's  vows  and  promises  of 
chastity  are  not  lawful,  and  can  bind  no  man  in  con- 
science not  to  wed  when  he  will.  And  this  man,  con- 
sidering that  when  a  man  teaches  one  thing  and  does 
another  himself,  the  people  set  less  value  by  his  preach- 
ing, determined  therefore  with  himself,  that  he  would 
show  himself  an  example  of  his  preaching.  Therefore, 
being  a  priest,  he  has  beguiled  a  woman  and  wedded 
her  ;  the  poor  woman,  I  ween,  being  unaware  that  he  is 
a  priest.      Then  you  have  also  an  Exposition  on  the  Seventh 


22  2       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

Chapter  of  Saint  Paul's  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  by  which 
exposition  also  priests,  friars,  monks,  and  nuns  are 
taught  the  eVangehcal  hberty  that  they  may  run  out 
a-caterwauling  and  wed.  That  work  has  no  name  of 
the  maker,  but  some  think  it  was  Friar  Roy  who,  when 
he  had  fallen  into  heresy,  then  found  it  unlawful  to  live 
in  chastity  and  ran  out  of  his  Order.  Then  have  we 
the  Examinations  of  Thorpe  put  forth  as  it  is  said  by 
George  Constantine  (by  whom  I  know  well  there  has 
been  a  great  many  books  of  that  sort  sent  into  this 
realm).  In  that  book,  the  heretic  that  made  it  as  (if  it 
were)  a  communication  between  the  bishop  and  his 
chaplains  and  himself,  makes  all  the  parties  speak  as  he 
himself  likes,  and  sets  down  nothing  as  spoken  against 
his  heresies,  but  what  he  himself  would  seem  solemnly 
to  answer.  When  any  good  Christian  man  who  has 
either  learning  or  any  natural  wit  reads  this  book,  he 
shall  be  able  not  only  to  perceive  him  for  a  foolish 
heretic  and  his  arguments  easy  to  answer,  but  shall  also 
see  that  he  shows  himself  a  false  liar  in  his  rehearsal  of 
the  matter  in  which  he  makes  the  other  part  sometimes 
speak  for  his  own  convenience  such  manner  of  things 
as  no  man  who  was  not  a  very  wild  goose  would  have 
done. 

"  Then  have  we  Jonas  made  out  by  Tyndale,  a  book 
that  whosoever  delight  therein  shall  stand  in  such  peril, 
that  Jonas  was  never  so  swallowed  up  by  the  whale,  as 
by  the  delight  of  that  book  a  man's  soul  may  be  so 
swallowed  by  the  devil  that  he  shall  never  have  the 
grace  to  get  out  again.  Then,  we  have  from  Tyndale 
the  answer  to  my  Dyalogue.  Then,  the  book  of  Frith 
against  Purgatory.  Then,  the  book  of  Luther  trans- 
lated into   Enghsh  in  the  name  of  Brightwell,  but,  as 


THE   LUTHERAN   INVASION  223 

I  am  informed,  it  was  translated  by  Frith  ;  a  book, 
such  as  Tyndale  never  made  one  more  fooHsh  nor  one 
more  full  of  lies.  ...  Then,  we  have  the  Practice  of 
Prelates,  wherein  Tyndale  intended  to  have  made  a 
special  show  of  his  high  worldly  wit,  so  that  men 
should  have  seen  therein  that  there  was  nothing  done 
among  princes  that  he  was  not  fully  advertised  of  the 
secrets.  Then,  we  have  now  the  book  of  Friar 
Barnes,  sometime  a  doctor  of  Cambridge,  who  was 
abjured  before  this  time  for  heresy,  and  is  at  this  day 
come  under  a  safe  conduct  to  the  realm.  Surely,  of 
all  their  books  that  yet  came  abroad  in  English  (of  all 
which  there  was  never  one  wise  nor  good)  there  was 
none  so  bad,  so  foolish,  so  false  as  his.  This,  since 
his  coming,  has  been  plainly  proved  to  his  face,  and 
that  in  such  wise  that,  when  the  books  that  he  cites 
and  alleges  in  his  book  were  brought  forth  before  him, 
and  his  ignorance  showed  him,  he  himself  did  in  divers 
things  confess  his  oversight,  and  clearly  acknowledged 
that  he  had  been  mistaken  and  wrongly  understood 
the  passages. 

" Then,  we  have  besides  Barnes's  book,  the  ABC 
for  children.  And  because  there  is  no  grace  therein, 
lest  we  should  lack  prayers,  we  have  the  Primer  and 
the  Ploughman's  Prayer  and  a  book  of  other  small 
devotions,  and  then  the  whole  Psalter  too.  After  the 
Psalter,  children  were  wont  to  go  straight  to  their 
Donat  and  their  Accidence,  but  now  they  go  straight  to 
Scripture.  And  for  this  end  we  have  as  a  Donat,  the 
book  of  the  Pathway  to  Scripture,  and  for  an  Accidence, 
the  Whole  sum  of  Scripture  in  a  little  book,  so  that  after 
these  books  are  learned  well,  we  are  ready  for  Tyndale's 
Pentateuchs  and  Tyndale's    Testament,   and  all  the  other 


224      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

high  heresies  that  he  and  Joye  and  Frith  and  Friar 
Barnes  teach  in  all  their  books.  Of  all  these  heresies 
the  seed  is  sown,  and  prettily  sprung  up  in  these  little 
books  before.  For  the  Primer  and  Psaltery  prayers  and 
all,  were  translated  and  made  in  this  manner  by  heretics 
only.  The  Psalter  was  translated  by  George  Joye,  the 
priest  that  is  wedded  now,  and  I  hear  say  the  Primer 
too,  in  which  the  seven  Psalms  are  printed  without  the 
Litany,  lest  folks  should  pray  to  the  saints  ;  and  the 
Dirge  is  left  out  altogether,  lest  a  man  might  happen 
to  pray  with  it  for  his  father's  soul.  In  their  Calendar, 
before  their  devout  prayers,  they  have  given  us  a  new 
saint,  Sir  Thomas  Hytton,  the  heretic  who  was  burned 
in  Kent.  They  have  put  him  in  on  St.  Matthew's  Eve, 
by  the  name  of  St.  Thomas  the  Martyr. 

"  It  would  be  a  long  work  to  rehearse  all  their 
books,  for  there  are  yet  more  than  I  have  known. 
Against  all  these  the  king's  high  wisdom  politically 
provided,  in  that  his  proclamation  forbade  any  manner 
of  English  books  printed  beyond  the  sea  to  be  brought 
into  this  realm,  or  any  printed  within  this  realm  to  be 
sold  unless  the  name  of  the  printer  and  his  dwelling- 
place  were  set  upon  the  book.  But  still,  as  I  said 
before,  a  few  malicious,  mischievous  persons  have 
now  brought  into  this  realm  these  ungracious  books 
full  of  pestilent,  poisoned  heresies  that  have  already  in 
other  realms  killed,  by  schisms  and  war,  many  thousand 
bodies,  and  by  sinful  errors  and  abominable  heresies 
many  more  thousand  souls. 

"  Although  these  books  cannot  either  be  there 
printed  without  great  cost,  nor  here  sold  without 
great  adventure  and  peril,  yet,  with  money  sent  hence, 
they  cease   not   to   print   them   there,  and    send   them 


THE   LUTHERAN    INVASION  225 

hither  by  the  whole  sacks  full  at  once  ;  and  in  some 
places,  looking  for  no  lucre,  cast  them  abroad  at  night, 
so  great  a  pestilent  pleasure  have  some  devilish  people 
caught  with  the  labour,  travail,  cast,  charge,  peril, 
harm,  and  hurt  of  themselves  to  seek  the  destruction 
of  others."  ^ 

In  his  introduction  to  the  Confutation  of  Tyndale's 
answer,  from  which  the  foregoing  extracts  are  taken. 
Sir  Thomas  More  gives  ample  evidence  that  the  teaching 
of  "  the  New  Learning  "  was  founded  entirely  upon  that 
of  the  German  Reformer  Luther,  although  on  certain 
points  his  English  followers  had  gone  beyond  their 
master.  He  takes  for  example  what  Hytton,  "whom 
Tyndale  has  canonized,"  had  been  teaching  "his  holy 
congregations,  in  divers  corners  and  luskes  lanes." 
Baptism,  he  had  allowed  to  be  "  a  sacrament  necessary 
for  salvation,"  though  he  declared  that  there  was  no 
need  for  a  priest  to  administer  it.  Matrimony,  he 
thought  a  good  thing  for  Christians,  but  would  be 
sorry  to  say  it  was  a  sacrament.  Extreme  Unction 
and  Confirmation,  together  with  Holy  Orders,  he 
altogether  rejected  as  sacraments,  declaring  them  to 
be  mere  ceremonies  of  man's  invention.  "  The  mass," 
he  declared,  "  should  never  be  said,"  since  to  do  so  was 
rather  an  act  of  sin  than  virtue.  Confession  to  a  priest 
was  unnecessary,  and  the  penance  enjoined  was  "without 
profit  to  the  soul."  Purgatory  he  denied,  "  and  said 
further,  that  neither  prayer  nor  fasting  for  the  souls 
departed  can  do  them  any  good."  Religious  vows 
were  wrong,  and  those  who  entered  religion  "sinned 
in  so  doing."  He  held  further,  that  "  no  man  had  any 
free-will   after   he   had    once    sinned ; "    that    "  all    the 

^  English  Works,  pp.  341-344. 

P 


226      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

images  of  Christ  and  His  saints  should  be  thrown  out 
of  the  Church,"  and  that  whatsoever  laws  "the  Pope 
or  a  General  Council  might  make  beyond  what  is 
expressly  commanded  in  Scripture "  need  not  be 
obeyed.  "As  touching  the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar, 
he  said  that  it  was  a  necessary  sacrament,  but  held 
that  after  the  consecration,  there  was  nothing  whatever 
therein,  but  only  the  very  substance  of  material  bread 
and  wine."  ^ 

Now,  it  was  to  defend  these  points  of  Catholic 
faith,  as  More,  in  common  with  the  most  learned  in 
the  land,  believed  them  to  be,  that  he  took  up  his  pen 
against  Tyndale  and  others.  I  wish,  he  says,  to  second 
*'  the  king's  gracious  purpose,  as  being  his  most  un- 
worthy chancellor,"  since  "  I  know  well  that  the  king's 
highness,  for  his  faithful  mind  to  God,  desires  nothing 
more  effectually  than  the  maintenance  of  the  true 
Catholic  faith,  whereof  is  his  no  more  honourable 
than  well-deserved  title,  '  defensor.'  He  detests  nothing 
more  than  these  pestilent  books  which  Tyndale  and 
others  send  over  into  the  realm  in  order  to  set  forth 
their  abominable  heresies.  For  this  purpose  he  has 
not  only  by  his  most  erudite  famous  books,  both  in 
English  and  Latin,  declared  his  most  Catholic  purpose 
and  intent,  but  also  by  his  open  proclamations  divers 
times  renewed,  and  finally  in  his  own  most  royal 
person  in  the  Star  Chamber  most  eloquently  by  his 
mouth,  in  the  presence  of  his  lords  spiritual  and 
temporal,  has  given  monition  and  warning  to  all  the 
justices  of  peace  of  every  quarter  of  his  realm  then 
assembled  before  his  Highness,  to  be  declared  by  them 
to  all    his   people,  and   did  prohibit   and  forbid  under 

1  Ibid.,  p.  346. 


THE   LUTHERAN   INVASION  227 

great  penalties,  the  bringing  in,  reading,  and  keep  of 
those  pernicious  poisoned  books."  ^ 

The  other  writers  of  the  time,  moreover,  had  no 
doubt  whatever  as  to  the  place  whence  the  novel 
opinions  had  sprung,  and  they  feared  that  social  dis- 
turbances would  follow  in  the  wake  of  the  religious 
teaching  of  the  sectaries  as  they  had  done  in  the  coun- 
try of  their  birth.  Thus  Germen  Gardynare,  writing 
to  a  friend  about  the  execution  of  John  Frith  for 
heresy,  says  that  he  was  "  amongst  others  found  busy 
at  Oxford  in  setting  abroad  these  heresies  which  lately 
sprang  up  in  Germany,  and  by  the  help  of  such  folk 
are  spread  abroad  into  sundry  places  of  Christendom, 
tending  to  nothing  else  but  to  the  division  and  rending 
asunder  of  Christ's  mystical  body.  His  Church  ;  and 
to  the  pulling  down  of  all  power  and  the  utter  subver- 
sion of  all  commonwealths."  ^ 

Sir  Thomas  More,  too,  saw  danger  to  the  ship  of 
State  from  the  storms  which  threatened  the  nation  in 
the  rise  of  the  religious  novelties  imported  from  abroad. 
As  a  warning  anticipation  of  what  might  come  to  pass 
in  England  if  the  flood  was  allowed  to  gain  head,  he 
describes  what  was  known  of  the  state  of  Germany 
when  he  wrote  in  1528.  What  helped  Luther  to  suc- 
cessfully spread  his  poison  was,  he  says,  "  that  liberty 
which  he  so  highly  commended  unto  the  people, 
inducing  them  to  believe  that  having  faith  they 
needed  nothing  else.  For  he  taught  them  to  neglect 
fasting,  prayer,  and  such  other  things  as  vain  and  un- 
fruitful ceremonies,  teaching  them  also  that  being  faith- 


1  Ibid.,  p.  351. 

8  Germen  Gardynare,  A  letter  of  a  yonge  geutyhnan,  &c.     London  :  W. 
Rastell,  1534. 


228      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

ful  Christians  they  were  so  near  cousins  to  Christ  that 
they  were,  in  a  full  freedom  and  liberty,  discharged  of 
all  governors  and  all  manner  of  laws  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral, except  only  the  Gospel.     And  though  he  said  that, 
as  a  point  of  special  perfection,  it  would  be  good  to 
suffer  and  bear  the  rule  and  authority  of  Popes  and 
princes  and  other  governors,  whose  rule  and  authority 
he  calls  mere  tyranny,  yet  he  says  the   people  are  so 
free  by  faith  that  they  are  no  more  bound  thereto  than 
they  are  to  suffer  wrong.     And  this  doctrine  Tyndale 
also  teaches  as  the  special  matter  of  his  holy  book  of 
disobedience.     Now,  this  doctrine  was  heard  so  plea- 
santly   in    Germany    by   the    common    people    that    it 
blinded   them    in    looking  on  the  remnant,  and  would 
not  allow  them  to  consider  and  see  what  end  the  same 
would  come  to.     The  temporal  lords  also  were  glad  to 
hear  this  talk  against  the  clergy,  and  the  people  were  as 
glad  to  hear  it  against  the  clergy  and  against  the  lords 
too,  and  against  all  the  governors  of  every  good  town  and 
city.     Finally,  it  went  so  far  that  it  began  to  burst  out 
and  fall  to  open  force  and  violence.      For  intending  to 
begin  at  the  most  feeble,  a  boisterous  company  of  the 
unhappy    sect    gathered    together    and    first    rebelled 
against   an    abbot,    and    afterwards    against    a    bishop, 
wherewith    the    temporal    lords    had    good    game    and 
sport    and    dissembled    the    matter,    gaping    after    the 
lands  of  the  spirituality,    till  they    had    almost   played 
as   ^sop  tells  of  the  dog,   which,  in  order  to   snatch 
at  the  shadow  of  the  cheese  in  the  water,  let  the  cheese 
he  had  in  his  mouth  fall,  and  lost  it.     For  so  it  was 
shortly  after   that   those  uplandish    Lutherans  took  so 
great  boldness  and  began  to  grow  so  strong  that  they 
set  also  upon  the  temporal  lords.     These   ...  so  ac- 


THE   LUTHERAN   INVASION  229 

quitted  themselves  that  they  slew  in  one  summer  70,000 
Lutherans  and  subdued  the  rest  in  that  part  of  Germany 
to  a  most  miserable  servitude.  .  .  .  And  in  divers  other 
parts  of  Germany  and  Switzerland  this  ungracious  sect 
is  so  grown,  by  the  negligence  of  governors  in  great 
cities,  that  in  the  end  the  common  people  have  com- 
pelled the  rulers  to  follow  them.  .   .  . 

"  And  now  it  is  too  piteous  a  sight  to  see  the  '  dis- 
piteous dispyghts  '  done  in  many  places  to  God  and  all 
good  men,  with  the  marvellous  change  from  the  face 
and  fashion  of  Christendom  into  a  very  tyrannous  per- 
secution, not  only  of  all  good  Christians  living  and  dead, 
but  also  of  Christ  Himself.  For  there  you  will  see 
now  goodly  monasteries  destroyed,  the  places  burnt 
up,  and  the  religious  people  put  out  and  sent  to 
seek  their  living  ;  or,  in  many  cities,  the  places  (the 
buildings)  yet  standing  with  more  despite  to  God  than 
if  they  were  burned  to  ashes.  For  the  religious  people, 
monks,  friars,  and  nuns,  are  wholly  driven  or  drawn 
out,  except  such  as  would  agree  to  forsake  their  vows 
of  chastity  and  be  wedded ;  and  places  dedicated  to 
cleanliness  and  chastity,  left  only  to  these  apostates  as 
brothels  to  live  there  in  lechery.  Now  are  the  parish 
churches  in  many  places  not  only  defaced,  all  the  orna- 
ments taken  away,  the  holy  images  pulled  down,  and 
either  broken  or  burned,  but  also  the  Holy  Sacrament 
cast  out.  And  the  abominable  beasts  (which  I  abhor 
to  think  about)  did  not  abhor  in  despite  to  defile  the 
pixes  and  in  many  places  use  the  churches  continually 
for  a  common  siege.  And  that  they  have  done  in  so 
despiteful  a  wise  that  when  a  stranger  from  other  places 
where  Christ  is  worshipped  resorts  to  these  cities,  some 
of  those   unhappy  wretched  citizens   do   not  fail,  as  it 


230      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

were,  for  courtesy  and  kindness,  to  accompany  them  in 
their  walking  abroad  to  show  them  the  pleasures  and 
commodities  of  the  town,  and  then  bring  them  to  the 
church,  only  to  show  them  in  derision  what  uses  the 
churches  serve  for  !  "  Then,  after  pointing  out  that  "  of 
this  sect  were  the  greater  part  of  those  ungracious 
people  who  lately  entered  into  Rome  with  the  Duke 
of  Bourbon,"  Sir  Thomas  More  details  at  consider- 
able length  the  horrors  committed  during  that  sack 
of  the  Eternal  City  ;  adding  :  "  For  this  purpose  I 
rehearse  to  you  these  their  heavy  mischievous  dealings, 
that  you  may  perceive  by  their  deeds  what  good  comes 
of  their  sect.  For  as  our  Saviour  says  :  '  ye  shall 
know  the  tree  by  the  fruit.'  "  ^ 

The  activity  of  the  teachers  of  the  new  doctrine 
was  everywhere  remarkable.  More  only  wished  that 
the  maintainers  of  the  traditional  Catholic  faith  were 
half  so  zealous  "  as  those  that  are  fallen  into  false 
heresies  and  have  forsaken  the  faith."  These  seem, 
he  says,  indeed  to  "  have  a  hot  fire  of  hell  in  their 
hearts  that  can  never  suffer  them  to  rest  or  cease, 
but  forces  them  night  and  day  to  labour  and  work 
busily  to  subvert  and  destroy  the  Catholic  Christian 
faith  by  every  means  they  can  devise." "  The  time 
was,  "  and  even  until  now  very  late,"  when  no  man 
would  allow  any  heresy  to  be  spoken  at  his  table  ;  for 
this  "has  been  till  of  late  the  common  Christian  zeal 
towards  the  Catholic  faith."  But  now  (1533)  "though, 
God  be  thanked,  the  faith  is  itself  as  fast  rooted  in  this 
realm  as  ever  it  was  before  (except  in  some  very  few 
places,  and  yet  even  in  those  few  the  very  faithful  folk 

1  English  Works,  pp.  257-259. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  1035. 


THE   LUTHERAN   INVASION  231 

are  many  more  than  the  faithless),  even  good  men 
are  beginning  to  tolerate  the  discussion  of  heretical 
views,  and  to  take  part  in  '  the  evil  talk.'  " 

To  understand  the  Reformation   in    England,   it    is 
important  to   note  the  progress  of  its  growth,   and  to 
note  that  the  lines  upon  which  it  developed  were   to 
all    intents    and    purposes   those   which    had   been   laid 
down  by  Luther  for  the   German   religious   revolution, 
although,  in  many  ways,  England  was  carried  along  the 
path  of  reformed  doctrines,  even  further  than  the  original 
leader  had  been  prepared  to  go.     The  special  points 
of  the  traditional  faith  of  the  English  people,  which  the 
reforming   party   successfully    attacked,    were   precisely 
those  which  had  been  the  battle-ground   in   Germany, 
and  Sir  Thomas  More's  description  of  the  result  there 
might  somewhat  later  have  been  written  of  this  country. 
Tyndale  was  described   by  More   as    "  the   captain    of 
the  English  heretics,"  and  the   influence  of  his   works 
no  doubt  greatly  helped  to  the  overthrow  of  the  tradi- 
tional teaching.     The  key  of  the  position  taken  up  by 
the    English    Reformers,   as   well   as   by   their   German 
predecessors,  was   the   claim  that    all   belief    must   be 
determined  by  the  plain  word  of   Holy  Scripture,  and 
by  that  alone.     Tradition  they  rejected,    although    Sir 
Thomas    More   pointed    out  forcibly   that   the    Church 
had  always  acknowledged  the  twofold  authority  of  the 
written     and     unwritten    word.^       Upon     this     ground 
Tyndale  and  his  successors  rejected  all  the  sacraments 
but  two,  attacked  popular   devotion  to    sacred   images 
and  prayers  to  our  Lady  and  the  saints,  and  rejected 
the  old   teaching   about    Purgatory   and   the   help   the 
souls   of  the  departed  faithful  could   derive   from   the 

^  Ibid.,  p.  409. 


232      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

suffrages  and  penances  of  the  living.  Confirmation 
and  the  anointing  of  priests  at  ordination  they  con- 
temptuously called  "  butter  smearing,"  and  with  their 
denial  of  the  priesthood  quickly  came  their  rejection 
of  the  doctrine  of  the  Sacrifice  in  the  Mass,  and  their 
teaching  that  the  Holy  Eucharist  is  a  *'  token  and 
sign"  rather  than  the  actual  Body  and  Blood  of  our 
Lord. 

No  means  were  left  untried  to  further  the  spread 
of  the  new  views.  Books  of  prayer  were  drawn  up,  in 
which,  under  the  guise  of  familiar  devotions,  the  poison 
of  the  reformed  doctrine  was  unsuspectedly  imbibed. 
Richard  Whitford  complains  that  his  works,  which  just 
on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation  were  deservedly  popular, 
had  been  made  use  of  for  the  purpose  of  interpolating 
tracts  against  points  of  Catholic  faith,  which  people  were 
induced  to  buy  under  the  supposition  that  they  were 
from  the  pen  of  the  celebrated  monk  of  Sion.  John 
Waylande,  the  printer  of  some  Whitford  books,  in  1537 
prefixed  the  following  notice  to  the  new  edition  of 
the  Werke  for  Householders.  "  The  said  author  required 
me  instantly  that  I  should  not  print  nor  join  any  other 
works  with  his,  specially  of  uncertain  authors.  For 
of  late  he  found  a  work  joined  in  the  same  volume 
with  his  works,  and  bought  and  taken  for  his  work. 
This  was  not  his,  but  was  put  there  instead  of  his  work 
that  before  was  named  among  the  contents  of  his  book, 
and  yet  his  (real)  work  was  left  out,  as  is  complained  in 
this  preface  here  unto  the  Reader." 

In  his  preface  Whitford  says  that  the  substituted 
work  was  obviously  by  one  of  the  Reformers,  and  "  not 
only  puts  me  into  infamy  and  slander,  but  also  puts 
all  readers   in  jeopardy  of    conscience   to    be  infected 


THE  LUTHERAN   INVASION  233 

(by  heresy)  and  in  danger  of  the  king's  laws,  for  the 
manifold  erroneous  opinions  that  are  contained  in  the 
same  book."  He  consequently  adds  a  warning  to  his 
readers :  "  By  my  poor  advice,"  he  says,  "  read  not 
those  books  that  go  forth  without  named  authors. 
For,  doubtless,  many  of  them  that  seem  very  devout 
and  good  works,  are  full  of  heresies,  and  your  old 
English  poet  says,  'There  is  no  poison  so  perilous 
of  sharpness  as  that  is  that  hath  of  sugar  a  sweet- 
ness.' "  1 

In  a  subsequent  volume,  published  in  1541,  called 
Dyvers  holy  instructions  mid  teachings,  Whitford  again  com- 
plains of  this  device  of  the  teachers  of  the  new  doctrines. 
In  the  preface  he  gives  the  exact  titles  of  the  four  little 
tracts  which  go  to  make  up  the  volume,  in  order,  as  he 
says,  "  to  give  you  warning  to  search  well  and  surely 
that  no  other  works  are  put  amongst  them  that  might 
deceive  you.  For,  of  a  certainty,  I  found  now  but 
very  lately  a  work  joined  and  bound  with  my  poor 
labours  and  under  the  contents  of  the  same  volume, 
and  one  of  my  works  which  was  named  in  the  same 
contents  left  out.  Instead  of  this,  was  put  this  other 
work  that  was  not  mine.  For  the  title  of  mine  was 
this,  '  A  daily  exercise  and  experience  of  death,'  and 
the  other  work  has  no  name  of  any  author.  And  all 
such  works  in  this  time  are  ever  to  be  suspected,  for 
so  the  heretics  are  used  to  send  forth  their  poison 
among  the  people  covered  with  sugar.  For  they  seem 
to  be  good  and  devout  workers,  and  are  in  very  deed 
stark  heresies."  ^ 


'   The  Werke  for  Householders.     London  :  John  Waylande,  1537. 
*  Richard  Whitford,  Dyvers  holy  tiistntc/ions.     London  :  W.  Mydylton, 
1541. 


234      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

Even  the  smallest  points  were  not  deemed  too  in- 
significant for  the  teaching  of  novel  doctrines  destruc- 
tive of  the  old  Catholic  spirit.  To  take  an  example  : 
John  Standish,  writing  in  Mary's  reign  about  the  ver- 
nacular Scripture,  complains  of  the  translation  which 
had  been  made  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII.  ''Who  is 
able,"  he  writes,  "to  tell  at  first  sight  how  many 
hundred  faults  are  even  in  their  best  translation  (if 
there  is  any  good).  Shall  they  be  suffered  still  to 
continue  ?  Shall  they  still  poison  more  like  as  they 
do  in  a  thousand  damnable  English  books  set  forth 
within  the  last  twenty-two  years  ?  Lord  deliver  us 
from  them  all,  and  that  with  all  speed  !  I  take  God 
to  record  (if  I  may  speak  only  of  one  fault  in  the 
translation  and  touch  no  more)  my  heart  did  ever 
abhor  to  hear  this  word  Dominus  .  .  .  translated  the 
Lord,  whereas  it  ought  to  be  translated  our  Lord,  the 
very  Latin  phrase  so  declaring.  Is  not  St.  John 
saying  to  Peter  (John,  xxi.),  Dominus  est,  'it  is  our 
Lord '  ?  whereas  they  have  falsely  translated  it  as  in 
many  other  places  '  the  Lord.'  And  likewise  in  the 
salutation  of  our  Lady,  '  Hail,  Mary,  full  of  grace, 
dominus  tecum,'  does  not  this  word  dominus  here  include 
noster,  and  so  ought  to  be  translated  '  our  Lord  is  with 
thee '  ?  Would  you  make  the  Archangel  like  a  devil 
call  him  the  Lord  ?  He  is  the  Lord  to  every  evil  spirit, 
but  to  us  He  is  our  most  merciful  Lord  and  ought  to 
be  called  so.  If,  perchance,  you  ask  of  a  husbandman 
whose  ground  that  is,  he  will  answer,  '  the  lord's,'  who 
is  perhaps  no  better  than  a  collier.  Well,  I  speak  this, 
not  now  so  much  for  the  translation,  seeing  that  it 
swarms  as  full  of  faults  as  leaves  (I  will  not  say  lines) 
as    I    do,   because    I    wish    that    the    common    speech 


THE   LUTHERAN   INVASION  235 

among  people  sprung  from  this  fond  translation,  <  I 
thank  the  Lord  ' ;  'the  Lord  be  praised '  ;  'the  Lord 
knoweth  '  ;  with  all  such-like  phrases  might  be  given 
up,  and  that  the  people  might  be  taught  to  call  Him 
'  our  Lord,'  saying,  '  I  thank  our  Lord '  ;  'our  Lord 
be  praised,'  ^  &c.,  &c." 

^  Sermons,  sig.  h.  vij. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE    PRINTED    ENGLISH    BIBLE 

It  is  very  commonly  believed  that  until  the  influence 
of  Cranmer  had  made  itself  felt,  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  continued  to  maintain  the  traditionally 
hostile  attitude  of  the  English  Church  towards  the 
English  Bible.  In  proof  of  this,  writers  point  to  the 
condemnation  of  the  translations  issued  by  Tyndale, 
and  the  wholesale  destruction  of  all  copies  of  this,  the 
first  printed  edition  of  the  English  New  Testament. 
It  is  consequently  of  importance  to  examine  into  the 
extent  of  the  supposed  clerical  hostility  to  the  vernacular 
Scriptures,  and  into  the  reasons  assigned  by  those 
having  the  conduct  of  ecclesiastical  affairs  at  that 
period  for  the  prohibition  of  Tyndale's  Testament. 

It  may  not  be  without  utility  to  point  out  that  the 
existence  of  any  determination  on  the  part  of  the 
Church  to  prevent  the  circulation  of  vernacular  Bibles 
in  the  fifteenth  century  has  been  hitherto  too  hastily 
assumed.  Those  who  were  living  during  that  period 
may  be  fairly  considered  the  most  fitting  interpreters 
of  the  prohibition  of  Archbishop  Arundel,  which  has 
been  so  frequently  adduced  as  sufficient  evidence  of 
this  supposed  uncompromising  hostility  to  what  is  now 
called  "  the  open  Bible."  The  terms  of  the  archbishop's 
monition   do    not,  on    examination,  bear   the   meaning 

usually  put  upon  it ;  and  should  the  language  be  con- 

236 


THE  PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE         237 

sidered  by  some  obscure,  there  is  absolute  evidence  of 
the  possession  of  vernacular  Bibles  by  Catholics  of 
undoubted  orthodoxy  with,  at  the  very  least,  the  tacit 
consent  of  the  ecclesiastical  authorities.  When  to  this 
is  added  the  fact  that  texts  from  the  then  known 
English  Scriptures  were  painted  on  the  walls  of  churches, 
and  portions  of  the  various  books  were  used  in  autho- 
rised manuals  of  prayer,  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that 
the  hostility  of  the  English  Church  to  the  vernacular 
Bible  has  been  greatly  exaggerated,  if  indeed  its  attitude 
has  not  altogether  been  misunderstood.  This  much 
may,  and  indeed  must,  be  conceded,  wholly  apart  from 
the  further  question  whether  the  particular  version  now 
known  as  the  Wycliffite  Scriptures  is,  or  is  not,  the 
version  used  in  the  fifteenth  and  early  sixteenth  century 
by  Catholic  Englishmen.  That  a  Catholic  version,  or 
some  version  viewed  as  Catholic  and  orthodox  by  those 
who  lived  in  the  sixteenth  century,  really  existed  does 
not  admit  of  any  doubt  at  all  on  the  distinct  testimony 
of  Sir  Thomas  More.  It  will  be  readily  admitted  that 
he  was  no  ordinary  witness.  As  one  eminent  in  legal 
matters,  he  must  be  supposed  to  know  the  value  of 
evidence,  and  his  uncompromising  attitude  towards  all 
innovators  in  matters  of  religion  is  a  sufficient  guarantee 
that  he  would  be  no  party  to  the  propagation  of  any 
unorthodox  or  unauthorised  translations. 

Some  quotations  from  Sir  Thomas  More's  works 
will  illustrate  his  belief  better  than  any  lengthy  exposi- 
tion. It  is  unnecessary,  he  says,  to  defend  the  law 
prohibiting  any  English  version  of  the  Bible,  "  for  there 
is  none  such,  indeed.  There  is  of  truth  a  Constitution 
which  speaks  of  this  matter,  but  nothing  of  such  fashion. 
For  you  shall  understand  that  the  great  arch-heretic 


238      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

Wycliffe,  whereas  the  whole  Bible  was  long  before  his 
days  by  virtuous  and  well-learned  men  translated  into 
the  English  tongue,  and  by  good  and  godly  people  and 
with  devotion  and  soberness  well  and  reverently  read, 
took  upon  himself  to  translate  it  anew.  In  this  trans- 
lation he  purposely  corrupted  the  holy  text,  maliciously 
planting  in  it  such  words,  as  might  in  the  readers'  ears 
serve  to  prove  such  heresies  as  he  '  went  about '  to  sow. 
These  he  not  only  set  forth  with  his  own  translation  of 
the  Bible,  but  also  with  certain  prologues  and  glosses 
he  made  upon  it,  and  he  so  managed  this  matter,  assign- 
ing probable  and  likely  reasons  suitable  for  lay  and  un- 
learned people,  that  he  corrupted  in  his  time  many  folk 
in  this  realm.  .   .   . 

"  After  it  was  seen  what  harm  the  people  took  from 
the  translation,  prologues,  and  glosses  of  Wycliffe  and 
also  of  some  others,  who  after  him  helped  to  set  forth 
his  sect  for  that  cause,  and  also  for  as  much  as  it  is 
dangerous  to  translate  the  text  of  Scripture  out  of  one 
tongue  into  another,  as  St.  Jerome  testifieth,  since  in 
translating  it  is  hard  to  keep  the  same  sentence  whole 
{i.e.  the  exact  meaning) :  it  was,  I  say,  for  these  causes 
at  a  Council  held  at  Oxford,  ordered  under  great  penal- 
ties that  no  one  might  thenceforth  translate  (the  Scrip- 
ture) into  English,  or  any  other  language,  on  his  own 
authority,  in  a  book,  booklet,  or  tract,  and  that  no  one 
might  read  openly  or  secretly  any  such  book,  booklet, 
or  treatise  newly  made  in  the  time  of  the  said  John 
Wycliffe,  or  since,  or  should  be  made  any  time  after,  till 
the  same  translation  had  been  approved  by  the  diocesan, 
or,  if  need  should  require,  by  a  Provincial  Council. 

"This  is  the  law  that  so  many  have  so  long  spoken 
about,   and   so   few  have  all   this  time  sought  to  look 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE         239 

whether  they  say  the  truth  or  not.  For  I  hope  you  see 
in  this  law  nothing  unreasonable,  since  it  neither  forbids 
good  translations  to  be  read  that  were  already  made  of 
old  before  Wycliffe's  time,  nor  condemns  his  because  it 
was  new,  but  because  it  was  '  naught.'  Neither  does  it 
prohibit  new  translations  to  be  made,  but  provides  that 
if  they  are  badly  made  they  shall  not  be  read  till  they 
are  thoroughly  examined  and  corrected,  unless  indeed 
they  are  such  translations  as  Wycliffe  and  Tyndale  made, 
which  the  malicious  mind  of  the  translator  has  handled 
in  such  a  way  that  it  were  labour  lost  to  try  and  correct 
them." 

The  "  objector,"  whom  Sir  Thomas  More  was  en- 
gaged in  instructing  in  the  Dialogue,  could  hardly  believe 
that  the  formal  Provincial  Constitution  meant  nothing 
more  than  this,  and  thereupon,  as  Sir  Thomas  says  :  "  I 
set  before  him  the  Constitutions  Provincial,  with  Lynd- 
wood  upon  it,  and  directed  him  to  the  place  under  the 
title  De  magish-is.  When  he  himself  had  read  this,  he 
said  he  marvelled  greatly  how  it  happened  that  in  so 
plain  a  matter  men  were  so  deceived."  But  he  thought 
that  even  if  the  law  was  not  as  he  had  supposed,  never- 
theless the  clergy  acted  as  if  it  were,  and  always  "  took 
all  translations  out  of  every  man's  hand  whether  the 
translation  was  good  or  bad,  old  or  new."  To  this 
More  replied  that  to  his  knowledge  this  was  not  correct. 
"  I  myself,"  he  says,  "  have  seen  and  can  show  you 
Bibles,  fair  and  old,  written  in  English,  which  have  been 
known  and  seen  by  the  bishop  of  the  diocese,  and  left  in 
the  hands  of  laymen  and  women,  whom  he  knew  to  be 
good  and  Catholic  people  who  used  the  books  with 
devotion  and  soberness."  He  admitted  indeed  that  all 
Bibles  found  in  the  hands  of  heretics  were  taken  away 


240      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

from  them,  but  none  of  these,  so  far  as  he  had  ever 
heard,  were  burnt,  except  such  as  were  found  to  be 
garbled  and  false.  Such  were  the  Bibles  issued  with 
evil  prologues  or  glosses,  maliciously  made  by  Wycliffe 
and  other  heretics.  "  Further,"  he  declared,  "  no  good 
man  would  be  so  mad  as  to  burn  a  Bible  in  which  they 
found  no  fault."  Nor  was  there  any  law  whatever  that 
prohibited  the  possession,  examination,  or  reading  of 
the  Holy  Scripture  in  English.^ 

In  reply  to  the  case  of  Richard  Hunn,  who,  accord- 
ing to  the  story  set  about  by  the  religious  innovators, 
had  been  condemned  and  his  dead  body  burnt  "  only 
because  they  found  English  Bibles  in  his  house,  in 
which   they  never  found  other  fault  than  because  they 

^  English  Works  (ed.  1557),  pp.  233-4.  This  positive  declaration  of  Sir 
Thomas  More  is  generally  ignored  by  modern  writers.  In  a  recently  pub- 
lished work,  for  example  {England  in  the  Age  of  Wycliffe,  by  George 
Macaulay  Trevelyan),  it  is  stated  that  "we  have  positive  proof  that  the 
bishops  denounced  the  dissemination  of  the  English  Bible  among  classes  and 
persons  prone  to  heresy,  burnt  copies  of  it,  and  cruelly  persecuted  Lollards  on 
the  charge  of  reading  it"  (p.  131).  In  proof  of  this  statement  the  author 
refers  his  readers  to  a  later  page  (p.  342)  of  his  volume.  Here  he  culls  from 
Foxe  {Acts  and  Monuments)  the  depositions  of  certain  witnesses  against  people 
suspected  of  teaching  heresy.  Amongst  these  depositions  it  is  said  by  a  few 
of  the  witnesses  that  some  of  these  teachers  were  possessed  of  portions  of  the 
Scriptures  in  English.  Mr.  Trevelyan  assumes,  because  witnesses  speak  to 
this  fact,  that  it  was  for  this  they  were  condemned,  or,  as  he  puts  it,  "cruelly 
persecuted,"  by  the  ecclesiastical  authorities.  Had  he  examined  his  authority, 
Foxe,  more  carefully,  he  would  have  found  the  actual  list  of  at-ticlcs  formulated 
against  these  teachers  of  heresy.  These  alone  are,  of  course,  the  charges 
actually  made  against  them  ;  and  the  mere  deposition  of  witnesses  in  those  days 
were,  no  more  than  they  are  in  ours,  the  charges  upon  which  the  accused  were 
condemned.  In  the  articles  or  charges  we  find  no  mention  whatever  of  the 
English  Bible,  and,  according  to  the  ordinary  rules  of  interpretation  of  docu- 
ments, this  absence  of  any  mention  of  Bible-reading  in  the  indictment,  for- 
mulated after  the  hearing  of  the  evidence,  and  when  witnesses  had  testified 
to  the  fact,  should  be  taken  to  show  that  the  mere  possession  of  the  vernacular 
Scriptures,  &c.,  was  not  accounted  an  offence  by  the  Church  authorities.  The 
real  charge  in  these  cases,  as  in  others,  was  of  teaching  what  was  then  held 
to  be  false  and  heretical,  teaching  founded  upon  false  interpretations  of  the 
Scripture  text,  or  upon  false  translations. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH    BIBLE         241 

were  in  English,"  Sir  Thomas  More,  professedly,  and 
with  full  knowledge  of  the  circumstances,  absolutely 
denies,  as  he  says,  "  from  top  to  toe,"  the  truth  of  this 
story .^  He  shows  at  great  length  that  the  whole  tale 
of  Hunn's  death  was  carefully  examined  into  by  the 
king's  ofBcials,  and  declares  that  at  many  of  the  ex- 
aminations he  himself  had  been  present  and  heard  the 
witnesses,  and  that  in  the  end  it  had  been  fully  shown 
that  Hunn  was  in  reality  a  heretic  and  a  teacher  of 
heresy.  "  But,"  urged  his  objector,  "  though  Hunn 
were  himself  a  heretic,  yet  might  the  book  (of  the 
English  Bible)  be  good  enough  ;  and  there  is  no  good 
reason  why  a  good  book  should  be  burnt."  The  copy 
of  this  Bible,  replied  More,  was  of  great  use  in  showing 
the  kind  of  man  Hunn  really  was,  "  for  at  the  time  he 
was  denounced  as  a  heretic,  there  lay  his  English  Bible 
open,  and  some  other  English  books  of  his,  so  that 
every  one  could  see  the  places  noted  with  his  own  hand, 
such  words  and  in  such  a  way  that  no  wise  and  good 
man  could,  after  seeing  them,  doubt  what  <  naughty 
minds'  the  men  had,  both  he  that  so  noted  them  and 
he  that  so  made  them.  I  do  not  remember  the  par- 
ticulars," he  continued,  "  nor  the  formal  words  as  they 
were  written,  but  this  I  do  remember  well,  that  besides 
other  things  found  to  support  divers  other  heresies, 
there  were  in  the  prologue  of  that  Bible  such  words 
touching  the  Blessed  Sacrament  as  good  Christian  men 
did  much  abhor  to  hear,  and  which  gave  the  readers  un- 
doubted occasion  to  think  that  the  book  was  written 
after  Wycliffe's  copy,  and  by  him  translated  into  our 
tongue."  ^ 

More  then  goes  on  to  state  his  own  mind  as  to  the 

1  Ibid.,  p.  235.  '-  Ibid.,  p.  240. 

Q 


242       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

utility  of  vernacular  Scriptures.  And,  in  the  first  place, 
he  utterly  denies  again  that  the  Church,  or  any  ecclesi- 
astical authority,  ever  kept  the  Bible  in  English  from 
the  people,  except  "  such  translations  as  were  either  not 
approved  as  good  translations,  or  such  as  had  already 
been  condemned  as  false,  such  as  Wycliffe's  and  Tyndale's 
were.  For,  as  for  other  old  ones  that  were  before 
Wycliffe's  days,  they  remain  lawful,  and  are  in  the  pos- 
session of  some  people,  and  are  read."  To  this  asser- 
tion of  a  plain  fact  Sir  Thomas  More's  opponent  did 
not  dissent,  but  frankly  admitted  that  this  was  certainly 
the  case,^  although  he  still  thought  that  the  English 
Bible  might  be  in  greater  circulation  than  it  was."  Sir 
Thomas  More  considered  that  the  clergy  really  had 
good  grounds  not  to  encourage  the  spread  of  the  ver- 
nacular Scriptures  at  that  time,  inasmuch  as  those  who 
were  most  urgent  in  the  matter  were  precisely  those 
whose  orthodoxy  was  reasonably  suspected.  It  made 
men  fear,  he  says,  "  that  seditious  people  would  do 
more  harm  with  it  than  good  and  honest  folk  would 
derive  benefit."  This,  however,  he  declared  was  not 
his  own  personal  view.^  "  I  would  not,"  he  writes, 
"  for  my  part,  withhold  the  profit  that  one  good,  devout, 
unlearned  man  might  get  by  the  reading,  for  fear  of  the 
harm  a  hundred  heretics  might  take  by  their  own  wilful 
abuse.  .  .  .  Finally,  I  think  that  the  Provincial  Con- 
stitution (already  spoken  of)  has  long  ago  determined 
the  question.  For  when  the  clergy  in  that  synod  agreed 
that  the  English  Bibles  should  remain  which  were  trans- 
lated before  Wycliffe's  days,  they,  as  a  necessary  conse- 
quence, agreed  that  it  was  no  harm  to  have  the  Bible 

^  Ibid.,  p.  241.  -  Ibid.,  p.  240. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  241. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH    BIBLE         243 

in  English.  And  when  they  forbade  any  new  transla- 
tion to  be  read  till  it  were  approved  by  the  bishops,  it 
appears  clearly  that  they  intended  that  the  bishop  should 
approve  it,  if  he  found  it  to  be  faultless,  and  also  to 
amend  it  where  it  was  found  faulty,  unless  the  man 
who  made  it  was  a  heretic,  or  the  faults  were  so  many 
and  of  such  a  character  that  it  would  be  easier  to  re- 
translate it  than  to  mend  it."  ^ 

This  absolute  denial  of  any  attitude  of  hostility  on 
the  part  of  the  Church  to  the  translated  Bible  is  reite- 
rated in  many  parts  of  Sir  Thomas  More's  English 
works.  When,  upon  the  condemnation  of  Tyndale's 
Testament,  the  author  pointed  to  this  fact  as  proof  of 
the  determination  of  the  clergy  to  keep  the  Word  of  God 
from  the  people.  More  replied  at  considerable  length. 
He  showed  how  the  ground  of  the  condemnation  had 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  any  anxiety  upon  the  part  of 
ecclesiastics  to  keep  the  Scriptures  from  lay  people,  but 
was  entirely  based  upon  the  complete  falsity  of  Tyn- 
dale's translation  itself.  "  He  pretends,"  says  Sir  Thomas 
More,  "  that  the  Church  makes  some  (statutes)  openly 
and  directly  against  the  Word  of  God,  as  in  that  statute 
whereby  they  have  condemned  the  New  Testament. 
Now,  in  truth,  there  is  no  such  statute  made.  For 
as  for  the  New  Testament,  if  he  mean  the  Testa- 
ment of  Christ,  it  is  not  condemned  nor  for- 
bidden. But  there  is  forbidden  a  false  English 
translation  of  the  New  Testament  newly  forged  by 
Tyndale,  altered  and  changed  in  matters  of  great  weight, 
in  order  maliciously  to  set  forth  against  Christ's  true 
doctrine  Tyndale's  anti-Christian  heresies.  Therefore 
that  book  is  condemned,  as  it  is  well  worthy  to  be,  and 

1  Ibid.,  p.  245. 


244      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

the  condemnation  thereof  is  neither  openly  nor  privily, 
directly  nor  indirectly,  against  the  word  of  God."  ^ 

Again,  in  another  place.  More  replies  to  what  he 
calls  Tyndale's  "  railing  "  against  the  clergy,  and  in  par- 
ticular his  saying  that  they  keep  the  Scripture  from  lay 
people  in  order  that  they  may  not  see  how  they 
"  juggle  with  it."  "  I  have,"  he  says,  *'  in  the  book  of 
my  Dyalogue  proved  already  that  Tyndale  in  this  point 
falsely  belies  the  clergy,  and  that  in  truth  Wycliffe, 
and  Tyndale,  and  Friar  Barnes,  and  such  others,  have 
been  the  original  cause  why  the  Scripture  has  been  of 
necessity  kept  out  of  lay  people's  hands.  And  of  late, 
specially,  by  the  politic  provision  and  ordinance  of  our 
most  excellent  sovereign  the  king's  noble  grace,  not 
without  great  and  urgent  causes  manifestly  rising  from 
the  false  malicious  means  of  Wycliffe  and  Tyndale,"  this 
has  been  prevented.  "  For  this  (attempt  of  Tyndale) 
all  the  lay  people  of  this  realm,  both  the  evil  folk  who 
take  harm  from  him,  and  the  good  folk  that  lose  their 
profit  by  him,  have  great  cause  to  lament  that  ever  the 
man  was  born." "" 

The  same  view  is  taken  by  Roger  Edgworth,  a 
popular  preacher  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  After 
describing  what  he  considered  to  be  the  evils  which 
had  resulted  from  the  spread  of  Lutheran  literature  in 
England,  he  says  :  "  By  this  effect  you  may  judge  the 
cause.  The  effect  was  evil,  therefore  there  must  needs 
be  some  fault  in  the  cause.  But  what  sayest  thou  ?  Is 
not  the  study  of  Scripture  good  ?  Is  not  the  know- 
ledge of  the  Gospels  and  of  the  New  Testament  godly, 
good,  and  profitable  for  a  Christian  man  or  woman  ? 
I   shall   tell   you  what  I   think   in   this   matter.      I   have 

^  Ibid.,  p.  510.  -  Ibid.,  p.  678. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE  245 

ever  been  in  this  mind,  that  I  have  thought  it  no  harm, 
but  rather  good  and  profitable,  that  Holy  Scripture 
should  be  had  in  the  mother  tongue,  and  withheld  from 
no  man  that  was  apt  and  meet  to  take  it  in  hand, 
specially  if  we  could  get  it  well  and  truly  translated, 
which  will  be  very  hard  to  be  had."  ^ 

There  is,  it  is  true,  no  doubt,  that  the  destruction  of 
Tyndale's  Testaments  and  the  increasing  number  of 
those  who  favoured  the  new  religious  opinions,  caused 
people  to  spread  all  manner  of  stories  abroad  as  to  the 
attitude  of  the  Church  authorities  in  England  towards 
the  vernacular  Scriptures.  Probably  the  declaration 
of  the  friend,  against  whom  Sir  Thomas  More,  then 
Chancellor,  in  1530,  wrote  his  Dyaloguc,  "that  great 
murmurs  were  heard  against  the  clergy  on  this  score," 
is  not  far  from  the  truth.  Ecclesiastics,  he  said,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  common  people,  would  not  tolerate 
criticism  of  their  lives  or  words,  and  desired  to  keep 
laymen  ignorant.  "  And  they  "  (the  people)  "  think," 
he  adds,  "  that  for  no  other  cause  was  there  burned  at 
St.  Paul's  Cross  the  New  Testament,  late  translated  by 
Master  William  Huchin,  otherwise  called  Tyndale,  who 
was  (as  men  say)  well  known,  before  he  went  over  the 
sea,  as  a  man  of  right  good  life,  studious  and  well 
learned  in  the  Scriptures.  And  men  mutter  among 
themselves  that  the  book  was  not  only  faultless,  but 
also  very  well  translated,  and  was  ordered  to  be  burned, 
because  men  should  not  be  able  to  prove  that  such 
faults  (as  were  at  Paul's  Cross  declared  to  have  been 
found  in  it)  were  never  in  fact  found  there  at  all  ;  but 
untruly  surmised,  in  order  to  have  some  just  cause 
to  burn  it,  and  that  for  no  other  reason  than  to  keep 

^  Roger  Edgworth,  Sermons,  London,  Caly,  1557,  f.  31. 


246       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

out  of  the  people's  hands  all  knowledge  of  Christ's 
Gospel  and  of  God's  law,  except  so  much  as  the  clergy 
themselves  please  now  and  then  to  tell  them.  Further, 
that  little  as  this  is,  it  is  seldom  expounded.  And,  as  it 
is  feared,  even  this  is  not  well  and  truly  told  ;  but 
watered  with  false  glosses  and  altered  from  the  truth 
of  the  words  and  meaning  of  Scripture,  only  to  main- 
tain the  clerical  authority.  And  the  fear  lest  this 
should  appear  evident  to  the  people,  if  they  were 
suffered  to  read  the  Scripture  themselves  in  their  own 
tongue,  was  (it  is  thought)  the  very  cause,  not  only 
for  which  the  New  Testament  translated  by  Tyndale 
was  burned,  but  also  why  the  clergy  of  this  realm  have 
before  this  time,  by  a  Constitution  Provincial,  prohibited 
any  book  of  Scripture  to  be  translated  into  the  English 
tongue,  and  threaten  with  fire  men  who  should  presume 
to  keep  them,  as  heretics  ;  as  though  it  were  heresy 
for  a  Christian  man  to  read  Christ's  Gospel."  ^ 

It  has  been  already  pointed  out  how  Sir  Thomas 
More  completely  disposed  of  this  assertion  as  to  the 
hostility  of  the  clergy  to  "the  open  Bible."  In  his 
position  of  Chancellor  of  England,  More  could  hardly 
have  been  able  to  speak  with  so  much  certainty  about 
the  real  attitude  of  the  Church,  had  not  the  true  facts 
been  at  the  same  time  well  understood  and  commonly 
acknowledged.  The  words  of  the  "  objector,"  however, 
not  only  express  the  murmurs  of  those  who  were  at  that 
period  discontented  with  the  ecclesiastical  system  ;  but 
they  voice  the  accusations  which  have  been  so  fre- 
quently made  from  that  day  to  this,  by  those  who  do 
not  as  a  fact  look  at  the  other  side.  Sir  Thomas  More's 
testimony  proves  absolutely  that  no  such  hostility  to  the 

^  Sir  Thomas  More,  English  Works,  p.  108. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE  247 

English  Bible  as  is  so  generally  assumed  of  the  pre- 
Reformation  Church  did,  in  fact,  exist.  Most  certainly 
there  never  was  any  ecclesiastical  prohibition  against 
vernacular  versions  as  such,  and  the  most  orthodox 
sons  of  the  Church  did  in  fact  possess  copies  of  the 
English  Scriptures,  which  they  read  openly  and  de- 
voutly.    This  much  seems  certain. 

Moreover,  Sir  Thomas  More's  contention  that  there 
was  no  prohibition  is  borne  out  by  other  evidence. 
The  great  canonist  Lyndwood  undoubtedly  understood 
the  Constitution  of  Oxford  on  the  Scriptures  in  the 
same  sense  as  Sir  Thomas  More.  In  fact,  as  it  has 
been  pointed  out  already,  to  his  explanation  Sir 
Thomas  More  successfully  appealed  in  proof  of  his 
assertion  that  there  was  no  such  condemnation  of  the 
English  Scriptures,  as  had  been,  and  is  still,  asserted 
by  some.  It  has,  of  course,  been  often  said  that  Sir 
Thomas  More,  and  of  course  Lyndwood,  were  wrong 
in  supposing  that  there  were  any  translations  previous 
to  that  of  the  version  now  known  as  Wycliffite. 
This  is  by  no  means  so  clear ;  and  even  supposing 
they  were  in  error  as  to  the  date  of  the  version,  it  is 
impossible  that  they  could  have  been  wrong  as  to  the 
meaning  and  interpretation  of  the  law  itself,  and  as 
to  the  fact  that  versions  were  certainly  in  circula- 
tion which  were  presumed  by  those  who  used  them 
to  be  Catholic  and  orthodox.  Archbishop  Cranmer 
himself  may  also  be  cited  as  a  witness  to  the  free 
circulation  of  manuscript  copies  of  the  English  Scrip- 
tures in  pre-Reformation  times,  since  the  whole  of  his 
argument  for  allowing  a  new  version,  in  the  preface  to 
the  Bishops'  Bible,  rests  on  the  well-known  custom 
of  the  Church  to  allow  vernacular  versions,  and  on  the 


248      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

fact  that  copies  of  the  EngHsh  Scriptures  had  previously 
been  in  daily  use  with  ecclesiastical  sanction. 

The  same  conclusion  must  be  deduced  from  books 
printed  by  men  of  authority  and  unquestionable  piety. 
In  them  we  find  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  strongly 
recommended.  To  take  an  example  :  Thomas  Lupset, 
the  friend  and  protege  of  Colet  and  Lilly,  gives  the 
following  advice  to  his  sisters,  two  of  whom  were  nuns  : 
"  Give  thee  much  to  reading  ;  take  heed  in  meditation 
of  the  Scripture,  busy  thee  in  the  law  of  God  ;  have 
a  customable  use  in  divine  books."  1  The  same  pious 
scholar  has  much  the  same  advice  for  a  youth  in  the 
world  who  had  been  his  pupil.  After  urging  him  to 
avoid  "meddling  in  any  point  of  faith  otherwise  than 
as  the  Church  shall  instruct  and  teach,"  he  adds,  "  more 
particularly  in  writings  you  shall  learn  this  lesson,  if  you 
would  sometimes  take  in  your  hand  the  New  Testament 
and  read  it  with  a  due  reverence "  ;  and  again  :  "  in 
reading  the  Gospels,  I  would  you  had  at  hand  Chrysos- 
tom  and  Jerome,  by  whom  you  might  surely  be  brought 
to  a  perfect  understanding  of  the  text."  " 

Moreover,  the  testimony  of  Sir  Thomas  More  that 
translations  were  allowed  by  the  Church,  and  that  these, 
men  considered  rightly  or  wrongly,  had  been  made 
prior  to  the  time  of  Wycliffe,  is  confirmed  by  Archdeacon 
John  Standish  in  Queen  Mary's  reign.  When  the 
question  of  the  advisability  of  a  vernacular  translation 
was  then  seriously  debated,  he  says :  "  To  the  intent 
that  none  should  have  occasion  to  misconstrue  the  true 
meaning  thereof,  it  is  to    be   thought  that,  if  all   men 

1  Thomas  Lupset,  Collected  Works,  1546.     Gathered  Counsails,  f.  202. 
^  Ibid.     An  Exhortation  to  young  men,  written  1529.     He  insists  much  on 
the  obligation  of  following  the  teaching  of  the  Church. 


THE   PRINTED  ENGLISH   BIBLE         249 

were  good  and  Catholic,  then  were  it  lawful,  yea,  and 
very  profitable  also,  that  the  Scripture  should  be  in 
English,  as  long  as  the  translations  were  true  and 
faithful.  .  .  .  And  that  is  the  cause  that  the  clergy 
did  agree  (as  it  is  in  the  Constitution  Provincial)  that 
the  Bibles  that  were  translated  into  English  before 
Wycliffe's  days  might  be  suffered  ;  so  that  only  such 
as  had  them  in  handling  were  allowed  by  the  ordinary 
and  approved  as  proper  to  read  them,  and  so  that  their 
reading  should  be  only  for  the  setting  forth  of  God's 
glory."  1 

Sir  Thomas  More,  in  his  Apology,  points  out  that 
although,  in  his  opinion,  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to 
have  a  proper  English  translation,  still  it  was  obviously 
not  necessary  for  the  salvation  of  man's  soul.  ''  If  the 
having  of  the  Scripture  in  English,"  he  writes,  "  be  a 
thing  so  requisite  of  precise  necessity,  that  the  people's 
souls  must  needs  perish  unless  they  have  it  translated 
into  their  own  tongue,  then  the  greater  part  of  them 
must  indeed  perish,  unless  the  preacher  further  provide 
that  all  people  shall  be  able  to  read  it  when  they  have 
it.  For  of  the  whole  people,  far  more  than  four-tenths 
could  never  read  English  yet,  and  many  are  now  too 
old  to  begin  to  go  to  school.  .  .  .  Many,  indeed,  have 
thought  it  a  good  and  profitable  thing  to  have  the 
Scripture  well  and  truly  translated  into  English,  and 
although  many  equally  wise  and  learned  and  also  very 
virtuous  folk  have  been  and  are  of  a  very  different 
mind  ;  yet,  for  my  own  part,  I  have  been  and  am  still 
of   the  same    opinion   as    I    expressed  in    my  Dyaloguc, 

1  John  Standish,  A  discourse  wherein  is  debated  whether  it  be  expedient 
that  the  Scripture  should  be  in  English  for  all  men  to  read  that  ivy II  (1555), 
A.  iij. 


250      THE   EVE   OF  THE   REFORMATION 

if  the  people  were  amended,  and  the  time  meet 
for  it."  ^ 

The  truth  is,  that  there  was  then  no  such  clamour 
for  the  translated  Bible  as  it  has  suited  the  purposes  of 
some  writers  to  represent.  In  view  of  all  that  is  known 
about  the  circumstances  of  those  times,  it  does  not 
appear  at  all  likely  that  the  popular  mind  would  be 
really  stirred  by  any  desire  for  Bible  reading.  The  late 
Mr.  Brewer  may  be  allowed  to  speak  with  authority  on 
this  matter  when  he  writes  :  "  Nor,  indeed,  is  it  possible 
that  Tyndale's  writings  and  translations  could  at  this 
early  period  have  produced  any  such  impressions  as  is 
generally  surmised,  or  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
many  readers.  His  works  were  printed  abroad  ;  their 
circulation  was  strictly  forbidden  ;  the  price  of  them  was 
beyond  the  means  of  the  poorer  classes,  even  supposing 
that  the  knowledge  of  letters  at  that  time  was  more 
generally  diffused  than  it  was  for  centuries  afterwards. 
To  imagine  that  ploughmen  and  shepherds  in  the 
country  read  the  New  Testament  in  English  by  stealth, 
or  that  smiths  and  carpenters  in  towns  pored  over  its 
pages  in  the  corners  of  their  masters'  workshops,  is  to 
mistake  the  character  and  acquirements  of  the  age." " 

"  So  far  from  England  then  being  a  '  Bible-thirsty 
land,' "  says  a  well-informed  writer,  ''  there  was  no 
anxiety  whatever  for  an  English  version  at  that  time, 
excepting  among  a  small  minority  of  the  people,"  ^  and 
these  desired  it  not  for  the  thing  in  itself  so  much 
as  a  means  of  bringing  about  the  changes  in  doctrine 
and    practice    which    they    desired.       "  Who    is    there 

1  English  I'Vorks,  p.  850. 

"^  J.  S.  Brewer,  Henry  VIII.,  vol.  ii.  p.  468. 

3  Dore,  Old  Bibles,  p.  13. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE         251 

among  us,"  says  one  preacher  of  the  period,  "  that 
will  have  a  Bible,  but  he  must  be  compelled  thereto." 
And  the  single  fact  that  the  same  edition  of  the  Bible 
was  often  reissued  with  new  titles,  &c.,  is  sufficient 
proof  that  there  was  no  such  general  demand  for 
Bibles  as  is  pretended  by  Foxe  when  he  writes  :  "  It 
was  wonderful  to  see  with  what  joy  this  book  of 
God  was  received,  not  only  among  the  learneder 
sort,  and  those  that  were  noted  for  lovers  of  the 
Reformation,  but  generally  all  England  over  among 
all  the  vulgar  common  people."  "  For,"  says  the 
writer  above  quoted,  "  if  the  people  all  England 
over  were  so  anxious  to  possess  the  new  translation, 
what  need  was  there  of  so  many  penal  enactments  to 
force  it  into  circulation,  and  of  royal  proclamations 
threatening  with  the  king's  displeasure  those  who 
neglected  to  purchase  copies."  ^ 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  condemnation  of 
the  first  printed  English  Testament,  and  the  destruction, 
by  order  of  the  ecclesiastical  authority,  of  all  copies 
which  Tyndale  had  sent  over  to  England  for  sale,  have 
tended,  more  than  anything  else,  to  confirm  in  their 
opinion  those  who  held  that  the  Church  in  pre- 
Reformation  England  would  not  tolerate  the  vernacular 
Scriptures  at  all.  It  is  of  interest,  therefore,  and  im- 
portance, if  we  would  determine  the  real  attitude  of 
churchmen  in  the  sixteenth  century  to  the  English 
Bible,  to  understand  the  grounds  of  this  condemnation. 
As  the  question  was  keenly  debated  at  the  time,  there 
is  little  need  to  seek  for  information  beyond  the  pages 
of  Sir  Thomas  More's  works. 

The  history  of  Tyndale's  translation  is  not  of  such 

1  P.  15. 


252      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

importance  in  this  respect,  as  a  knowledge  of  the  chief 
points  objected  against  it.  Some  brief  account  of  this 
history,  however,  is  almost  necessary  if  we  would  fully 
understand  the  character  and  purpose  of  the  trans- 
lation. William  Tyndale  was  born  about  the  year 
1484,  and  was  in  turn  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Uni- 
versities, and  professed  among  the  Friars  Observant  at 
Greenwich.  In  1524  he  passed  over  to  Hamburg,  and 
then,  about  the  middle  of  the  year,  to  Wittenberg,  where 
he  attached  himself  to  Luther.  Under  the  direction  at 
least,  of  the  German  reformer,  and  very  possibly  also 
with  his  actual  assistance,  he  commenced  his  transla- 
tion of  the  New  Testament.  The  royal  almoner, 
Edward  Lee,  afterwards  Archbishop  of  York,  being 
on  a  journey  to  Spain,  wrote  on  December  2,  1525, 
from  Bordeaux,  warning  Henry  VIII.  of  the  prepara- 
tion of  this  book.  ''  I  am  certainly  informed,"  he  says, 
"  that  an  Englishman,  your  subject,  at  the  solicitation 
and  instance  of  Luther,  with  whom  he  is,  hath  trans- 
lated the  New  Testament  into  English  ;  and  within  a 
few  days  intendeth  to  return  with  the  same  imprinted 
into  England.  I  need  not  to  advertise  your  Grace 
what  infection  and  danger  may  ensue  hereby  if  it  be 
not  withstanded.  This  is  the  way  to  fill  your  realm 
with  Lutherans.  For  all  Luther's  perverse  opinions 
be  grounded  upon  bare  words  of  Scripture  not  well 
taken  nor  understood,  which  your  Grace  hath  opened 
{i.e.  pointed  out)  in  sundry  places  of  your  royal  book."  ^ 
Luther's  direct  influence  may  be  detected  on  almost 
every  page  of  the  printed  edition  issued  by  Tyndale, 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  prepared  with 
Luther's  version  of  1522  as  a  guide.      From  the  general 

1  Ellis,  Historical  Letters,  3rd  Series,  ii.  p.  7i- 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE         253 

introduction  of  this  German  Bible,  nearly  half,  or  some 
sixty  lines,  are  transferred  by  Tyndale  almost  bodily  to 
his  prologue,  whilst  he  adopted  and  printed  over  against 
the  same  chapters  and  verses,  placing  them  in  the  same 
position  in  the  inner  margins,  some  190  of  the  German 
reformer's  marginal  references.  Besides  this,  the  mar- 
ginal notes  on  the  outer  margin  of  the  English  Testa- 
ment are  all  Luther's  glosses,  translated  from  the 
German.  In  view  of  this,  it  can  hardly  be  a  matter 
of  surprise  that  Tyndale's  Testament  was  very  com- 
monly known  at  the  time  as  "  Luther's  Testament  in 
English." 

In  this  work  of  translation  or  adaptation,  Tyndale 
was  assisted  by  another  ex-friar,  named  Joye,  with 
whom,  however,  he  subsequently  quarrelled,  and  about 
whom  he  then  spoke  in  abusive  and  violent  terms.  At 
first  it  was  intended  to  print  the  edition  at  Cologne,  but 
being  disturbed  by  the  authorities  there,  Tyndale  fled 
to  Worms,  and  at  once  commenced  printing  at  the 
press  of  Peter  Schoeffer,  the  octavo  volume  which  is 
known  as  the  first  edition  of  Tyndale's  New  Testament. 
Although  the  author  is  supposed  to  have  been  a  good 
Greek  scholar,  there  is  evidence  to  show  that  the  copy 
he  used  for  the  work  of  translation  was  the  Latin  ver- 
sion of  Erasmus,  printed  by  Fisher  in  15 19,  with  some 
alterations  taken  from  the  edition  of  1522,  and  some 
other  corrections  from  the  Vulgate. 

John  Cochlaeus,  who  had  a  full  and  personal  know- 
ledge of  all  the  Lutheran  movements  at  the  time,  writing 
in  1533,  says:  "Eight  years  previously,  two  apostates 
from  England,  knowing  the  German  language,  came 
to  Wittenberg,  and  translated  Luther's  New  Testament 
into   English.     They  then    came   to   Cologne,   as  to    a 


254      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

city  nearer  to  England,  with  a  more  established 
trade,  and  more  adapted  for  the  despatch  of  merchan- 
dise. Here  .  .  .  they  secretly  agreed  with  printers  to 
print  at  first  three  thousand  copies,  and  printers  and 
publishers  pushed  on  the  work  with  the  firm  expecta- 
tion of  success,  boasting  that  whether  the  king  and 
cardinal  liked  it  or  not,  England  would  shortly  '  be 
Lutheran.' "  ^ 

It  was  this  scheme  that  Cochlaeus  was  instrumental 
in  frustrating,  his  representations  forcing  Tyndale  to 
remove  the  centre  of  his  operations  to  Worms.  For 
the  benefit  of  the  Scotch  king,  to  whom  his  account  was 
addressed,  Cochlceus  adds,  that  Luther's  German  trans- 
lation of  the  New  Testament  was  intended  of  set 
purpose  to  spread  his  errors  ;  that  the  people  had 
bought  up  thousands,  and  that  thereby  ''  they  have 
not  been  made  better  but  rather  the  worse,  artificers 
who  were  able  to  read  neglecting  their  shops  and 
the  work  by  which  they  ought  to  gain  the  bread 
of  their  wives  and  children."  For  this  reason,  he 
says,  magistrates  in  Germany  have  had  to  forbid  the 
reading  of  Luther's  Testament,  and  many  have  been  put 
in  prison  for  reading  it.  In  his  opinion  the  translation 
of  the  Testament  into  the  vernacular  had  become  an 
idol  and  a  fetish  to  the  German  Lutherans,  although  in 
Germany  there  were  many  vernacular  translations  of 
both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments,  before  the  rise 
of  Lutheranism.^ 


^  Johannes  Cochlasus,  An  expediat  laicis  legere  Novi  Testamenti  lib)-os 
lingua  vernacula,  1533,  A.  i.  The  warning  of  Cochlseus  was  addressed  to 
the  Scotch  king,  and  as  a  result  of  this  letter,  pointing  out  the  Lutheran 
character  of  the  English  version  of  Tyndale,  the  Scotch  bishops  in  the  Synod 
■of  St.  Andrews  in  1529  forbade  the  importation  of  Bibles  into  Scotland. 

2  Ibid.,  L.  iij. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE  255 

With  a  full  understanding  of  the  purpose  and  ten- 
dency of  Tyndale's  translation  and  of  the  evils  which 
at  least  some  hard-headed  men  had  attributed  to  the 
spread  of  Luther's  German  version,  upon  which  almost 
admittedly  the  English  was  modelled,  the  ecclesiastical 
authorities  of  England  approached  the  practical  ques- 
tion— what  was  to  be  done  in  the  matter  ?  Copies  of 
the  printed  edition  must  have  reached  England  some 
time  in  1526,  for  in  October  of  that  year  Bishop  Tun- 
stall  of  London  addressed  a  monition  to  the  arch- 
deacons on  the  subject.  "  Many  children  of  iniquity," 
he  says,  "  maintainers  of  Luther's  sect,  blinded  through 
extreme  wickedness,  wandering  from  the  way  of  truth 
and  the  Catholic  faith,  have  craftily  translated  the 
New  Testament  into  our  English  tongue,  intermeddling 
therewith  many  heretical  articles  and  erroneous  opinions, 
pernicious  and  offensive,  seducing  the  simple  people  ; 
attempting  by  their  wicked  and  perverse  interpretations 
to  profane  the  majesty  of  Scripture,  which  hitherto  hath 
remained  undefiled,  and  craftily  to  abuse  the  most  holy 
Word  of  God,  and  the  true  sense  of  the  same.  Of  this 
translation  there  are  many  books  printed,  some  with 
glosses  and  some  without,  containing  in  the  English 
tongue  that  pestiferous  and  pernicious  poison,  (and 
these  are)  dispersed  in  our  diocese  of  London."  He 
consequently  orders  all  such  copies  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment to  be  delivered  up  to  his  offices  within  thirty 
days.^ 

This  was  the  first  action  of  the  English  ecclesiastical 
authorities,  and  it  was  clearly  taken  not  from  distrust 
of  what  the  same  bishop  calls  "  the  most  holy  Word 
of  God,"  but  because  they  looked  on  the  version  sent 

^  VVilkins,  Concilia,  iii.  p.  727. 


256      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

forth  by  Tyndale  as  a  profanation  of  the  Bible,    and 
as  intended  to  disseminate  the  errors  of  Lutheranism. 

Of  the  Lutheran  character  of  the  translation  the 
authorities,  whether  in  Church  or  State,  do  not  seem 
to  have  had  from  the  first  the  least  doubt.  The  king 
himself,  in  a  rejoinder  to  Luther's  letter  of  apology, 
says  that  the  German  reformer  "  fell  in  device  with 
one  or  two  lewd  persons,  born  in  this  our  realm,  for 
the  translating  of  the  New  Testament  into  English,  as 
well  with  many  corruptions  of  that  holy  text,  as  certain 
prefaces  and  other  pestilent  glosses  in  the  margins,  for 
the  advancement  and  setting  forth  of  his  abominable 
heresies,  intending  to  abuse  the  good  minds  and  devo- 
tion that  you,  our  dearly  beloved  people,  bear  toward 
the  Holy  Scripture  and  infect  you  with  the  deadly  cor- 
ruption and  contagious  odour  of  his  pestilent  errors."  ^ 

Bishop  Tunstall,  in  1529,  whilst  returning  from  an 
embassy  abroad,  purchased  at  Antwerp  through  one 
Packington,  all  copies  of  the  English  printed  New 
Testament  that  were  for  sale,  and,  according  to  the 
chronicler  Hall,  burned  them  publicly  at  St.  Paul's 
in  May  1530.  For  the  same  reason  the  confiscated 
volumes  of  the  edition  first  sent  over  were  committed 
to  the  flames  some  time  in  1527,^  and  Bishop  Tunstall 
explained  to  the  people  at  Paul's  Cross  that  the  book 
was  destroyed  because  in  more  than  two  thousand 
places  wrong  translations  and  corruptions  had  been 
detected.  Tyndale  made  a  great  outcry  at  the  iniquity 
of    burning    the   Word    of    God  ;     but    in    The  Wicked 

^  Cf.  Parker  Soc.     Tyndale's  Doctrinal  treatises,  &c.,  preface  xxx. 

■-  Probably  on  Sunday,  February  ii,  when  Cardinal  Wolsey,  with  six  and 
thirty  bishops  and  other  ecclesiastics,  were  present  at  the  burning  of  Lutheran 
books  before  the  great  crucifix  at  the  north  gate.  Amongst  the  books,  accord- 
ing to  Tyndale,  were  copies  of  his  translated  Testament. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE         257 

Mammon  he  declares  that,  "  in  burning  the  New  Testa- 
ment they  did  none  other  thynge  than  I  looked  for." 
Moreover,  as  he  sold  the  books  knowing  the  purpose 
for  which  they  were  purchased,  he  may  be  said  to  have 
been  a  participator  in  the  act  he  blames.  "  The  fact 
is,"  says  a  modern  authority,  "  the  books  were  full  of 
errors  and  unsaleable,  and  Tyndale  wanted  money  to 
pay  the  expense  of  a  revised  version  and  to  purchase 
Vastermann's  old  Dutch  blocks  to  illustrate  his  Penta- 
teuch, and  was  glad  to  make  capital  in  more  ways  than 
one  by  the  translation.  *  I  am  glad,'  said  he,  *  for  these 
two  benefits  shall  come  thereof :  I  shall  get  money  to 
bring  myself  out  of  debt,  and  the  whole  world  will  cry 
out  against  the  burning  of  God's  Word,  and  the  over- 
plus of  the  money  that  shall  remain  to  me  shall  make 
me  more  studious  to  correct  the  said  New  Testament, 
and  so  newly  to  imprint  the  same  once  again,  and  I 
trust  the  second  you  will  much  better  like  than  you 
ever  did  the  first.'  "  ^ 

Tyndale  allowed  nine  years  to  elapse  before  issuing 
a  second  edition  of  his  Testament.  Meantime,  as  his 
former  assistant,  Joye,  says,  foreigners  looking  upon  the 
English  Testament  as  a  good  commercial  speculation, 
and  seeing  that  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  in  England 
had  given  orders  to  purchase  the  entire  first  issue  of 
Tyndale's  print,  set  to  work  to  produce  other  reprints. 
Through  ignorance  of  the  language,  the  various  editions 
they  issued  were  naturally  full  of  typographical  errors, 
and,  as  Joye  declared,  "  England  hath  enough  and  too 
many  false  Testaments,  and  is  now  likely  to  have  many 
more."  He  consequently  set  to  work  himself  to  see 
an  edition  through  the  press,  in  which,  without  Tyndale's 

1  Dore,  Old  Bibles,  p.  26. 


258       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

leave,  he  made  substantial  alterations  in  his  translation. 
Joye's  version  appeared  in  1534,  and  immediately 
Tyndale  attacked  its  editor  in  the  most  bitter,  reproach- 
ful terms.  In  George  Joye's  Apology,  which  appeared 
in  1535,  he  tried,  as  he  says,  "to  defend  himself  against 
so  many  slanderous  lies  upon  him  in  Tyndale's  un- 
charitable and  unsober  epistle."  In  the  course  of  the 
tract,  Joye  charges  Tyndale  with  claiming  as  his  own 
what  in  reality  was  Luther's.  "  I  have  never,"  he  says, 
"  heard  a  sober,  wise  man  praise  his  own  works  as  I 
have  heard  him  praise  his  exposition  of  the  fifth,  sixth, 
and  seventh  chapters  of  St.  Matthew,  insomuch  that 
mine  ears  glowed  for  shame  to  hear  him  ;  and  yet  it 
was  Luther  that  made  it,  Tyndale  only  translating  it 
and  powdering  it  here  and  there  with  his  own  fantasies." 

In  a  second  publication  Joye  declares  Tyndale's 
incompetence  to  judge  of  the  original  Greek.  "  I 
wonder,"  he  says,  "  how  he  could  compare  it  with  the 
Greek,  since  he  himself  is  not  so  exquisitely  seen  therein. 
...  I  know  well  (he)  was  not  able  to  do  it  without  such 
a  helper  as  he  hath  ever  had  hitherto."  ^  Tyndale,  how- 
ever, continued  his  work  of  revision  in  spite  of  opposi- 
tion, and  further,  with  the  aid  of  Miles  Coverdale, 
issued  translations  of  various  portions  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. 

Shortly  after  the  public  burning  of  the  copies  of 
the  translated  Testament  by  Bishop  Tunstall,  on  May 
24,  1530,  an  assembly  was  called  together  by  Arch- 
bishop Warham  to  formally  condemn  these  and  other 
books  then  being  circulated  with  the  intention  of  under- 
mining the  religion  of  the  country.  The  king  was 
present  in  person,  and  a  list  of  errors  was  drawn  up 

^  Dore,  ut  sup.,  32. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE         259 

and  condemned  "with  all  the  books  containing  the 
same,  with  the  translation  also  of  Scripture  corrupted 
by  William  Tyndale,  as  well  in  the  Old  Testament  as  in 
the  New."  After  this  meeting,  a  document  was  issued 
with  the  king's  .authority,  which  preachers  were  required 
to  read  to  their  people.  After  speaking  of  the  books 
condemned  for  teaching  error,  the  paper  takes  notice 
of  an  opinion  "  in  some  of  his  subjects  "  that  the  Scrip- 
ture should  be  allowed  in  English.  The  king  declares 
that  it  is  a  good  thing  the  Scriptures  should  be  circu- 
lated at  certain  times,  but  that  there  are  others  when 
they  should  not  be  generally  allowed,  and  taking  into 
consideration  all  the  then  existing  circumstances,  he 
"  thinketh  in  his  conscience  that  the  divulging  of  the 
Scripture  at  this  time  in  the  English  tongue  to  be  com- 
mitted to  the  people  .  .  .  would  rather  be  to  their 
further  confusion  and  destruction  than  for  the  edifica- 
tion of  their  souls." 

In  this  opinion,  we  are  told,  all  in  the  assembly 
concurred.  At  the  same  time,  however,  the  king  pro- 
mised that  he  would  have  the  New  Testament  "  faith- 
fully and  purely  translated  by  the  most  learned  men," 
ready  to  be  distributed  when  circumstances  might 
allow. 

Sir  Thomas  More  plainly  states  the  reason  for  this 
prohibition.  '*  In  these  days,  in  which  Tyndale  (God 
amend  him)  has  so  sore  poisoned  malicious  and  new- 
fangled folk  with  the  infectious  contagion  of  his  heresies, 
the  king's  highness,  and  not  without  the  counsel  and 
advice,  not  only  of  his  nobles  with  his  other  counsellors 
attending  upon  his  Grace's  person,  but  also  of  the  most 
virtuous  and  learned  men  of  both  universities  and  other 
parts  of   the  realm,  specially  called  thereto,  has  been 


26o      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

obliged  for  the  time  to  prohibit  the  Scriptures  of  God 
to  be  allowed  in  the  English  tongue  in  the  hands  of 
the  people,  lest  evil  folk  .  .  .  may  turn  all  the  honey 
into  poison,  and  do  hurt  unto  themselves,  and  spread 
also  the  infection  further  abroad  .  .  .  and  by  their 
own  fault  misconstrue  and  take  harm  from  the  very 
Scripture  of  God."  ^ 

Early  in  1534  Tyndale  took  up  his  abode  once 
more  in  Antwerp  at  the  house  of  an  English  merchant, 
and  busied  himself  in  passing  his  revised  New  Testa- 
ment through  the  press.  This  was  published  in  the 
following  November.  To  it  he  prefixed  a  second  pro- 
logue dealing  with  the  edition  just  published  by  George 
Joye.  This  he  declares  was  no  true  translation,  and 
charges  his  former  assistant  with  deliberate  falsification 
of  the  text  of  Holy  Scripture  in  order  to  support  his 
errors  and  false  opinions.  The  edition  itself  manifests 
many  changes  in  the  text  caused  by  the  criticism  to 
which  the  former  impression  had  been  subjected,  whilst 
many  of  the  marginal  notes  "  exhibit  the  great  change 
that  had  taken  place  in  Tyndale's  religious  opinions, 
and  show  that  he  had  ceased  to  be  an  Episcopalian."  ^' 

Having  given  a  brief  outline  of  the  history  of  Tyn- 
dale's Testament,  we  are  now  in  a  position  to  examine  into 
the  grounds  upon  which  the  ecclesiastical  authorities  of 
England  condemned  it.  For  this  purpose,  we  need 
again  hardly  go  beyond  the  works  of  Sir  Thomas  More, 
who  in  several  of  his  tracts  deals  specifically  with  this 
subject.  "  Tyndale's  false  translation  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment," he  says,  ''was,  as  he  himself  confesses,  translated 
with  such  changes  as  he  has  made  in  it  purposely,  to 
the    intent   that    by    those    changed    words    the    people 

^  English  Works,  p.  422.  -  Dore,  35. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH    BIBLE  261 

should  be  led  into  the  opinions  which  he  himself  calls 
true  Catholic  faith,  but  which  all  true  Catholic  people 
call  very  false  and  pestilent  heresies."  After  saying 
that  for  this  reason  this  translation  was  rightly  con- 
demned by  the  clergy  and  openly  burnt  at  Paul's  Cross, 
he  continues  :  "  The  faults  are  so  many  in  T^aidale's  trans- 
lation of  the  New  Testament,  and  so  spread  throughout 
the  whole  book,  that  it  were  as  easy  to  weave  a  new 
web  of  cloth  or  to  sew  up  every  hole  in  a  net,  so  would 
it  be  less  labour  to  translate  the  whole  book  anew  than 
to  make  in  his  translation  as  many  changes  as  there 
needs  must  be  before  it  were  made  a  good  translation. 
Besides  this,  no  wise  man,  I  fancy,  would  take  bread 
which  he  well  knew  had  once  been  poisoned  by  his 
enemy's  hand,  even  though  he  saw  his  friend  after- 
wards sweep  it  ever  so  clean.  .  .  .  For  when  it  had 
been  examined,  considered,  and  condemned  by  those  to 
whom  the  judgment  and  ordering  of  the  thing  belonged, 
and  that  false  poisoned  translation  had  been  forbidden 
to  the  people,"  it  would  be  the  height  of  presumption  for 
any  one  to  encourage  the  people  boldly  to  resist  their 
prince  and  disobey  their  prelates,  and  give  them,  as  some 
indeed  have,  such  a  poor  reason  as  this,  "  that  poisoned 
bread  is  better  than  no  bread."  ^ 

Further,  in  speaking  with  sorrow  of  the  flood  of 
heretical  literature  which  seemed  ever  growing  in  volume, 
Sir  Thomas  More  writes :  "  Besides  the  works  in  Latin, 
French,  and  German,  there  are  made  in  the  English 
tongue,  first,  Tyndale's  New  Testament,  father  of  them 
all,  because  of  his  false  translations,  and  after  that  the 
five  books  of  Moses,  translated  by  the  same  man,  we 
need   not   doubt  in  what  manner,  when  we  know  by 

^  English  Works,  p.  S49. 


262      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

whom  and  for  what  purpose.  Then  you  have  his  intro- 
duction to  St.  Paul's  Epistle,  with  which  he  intro- 
duces his  readers  to  a  false  understanding  of  St.  Paul, 
making  them,  among  many  other  heresies,  believe  that 
St.  Paul  held  that  faith  alone  was  sufficient  for  salva- 
tion, and  that  men's  good  works  were  worth  nothing 
and  could  deserve  no  reward  in  heaven,  though  they 
were  done  in  grace."  ^ 

Again,  he  says  :  "In  the  beginning  of  my  Dyalogiie, 
I  have  shown  that  Tyndale's  translation  of  the  New 
Testament  deserved  to  be  burnt,  because  itself  showed 
that  he  had  translated  it  with  an  evil  mind,  and  in  such 
a  way  that  it  might  serve  him  as  the  best  means  of 
teaching  such  heresies  as  he  had  learnt  from  Luther, 
and  intended  to  send  over  hither  and  spread  abroad 
within  this  realm.  To  the  truth  of  my  assertion,  Tyn- 
dale  and  his  fellows  have  so  openly  testified  that  I  need 
in  this  matter  no  further  defence.  For  every  man  sees 
that  there  was  never  any  English  heretical  book  sent 
here  since,  in  which  one  item  of  their  complaint  has  not 
been  the  burning  of  Tyndale's  Testament.  For  of  a  surety 
they  thought  in  the  first  place  that  his  translation,  with 
their  further  false  construction,  would  be  the  bass  and 
the  tenor  wherever  they  would  sing  the  treble  with 
much  false  descant."  ^ 

To  take  some  instances  of  the  false  translations  to 
which  More  reasonably  objects :  First,  Tyndale  sub- 
stitutes for  Church  the  word  Congregation,  "  a  word  with 
no  more  signification  in  Christendom  than  among  the 
Jews  or  Turks."  After  protesting  that  Tyndale  has  no 
right  to  change  the  signification  of  a  word,  as,  for  ex- 
ample, to  speak  of  "a  football,"  and  to  mean  "the  world," 

1  English  Works,  p.  341.  -  Ibid.,  p.  410. 


THE   PRINTED  ENGLISH   BIBLE         263 

More  continues  :  "  Most  certainly  the  word  Congregation, 
taken  in  conjunction  with  the  text,  would  not,  when  he 
translated  it  first,  have  served  to  make  the  English 
reader  understand  by  it  the  Church  any  more  than 
when  he  uses  the  word  idols  for  images,  or  images  for 
ido/s,  or  the  word  repenting  for  doing  penance,  which  he 
also  does.  And  indeed  he  has  since  added  to  his  trans- 
lation certain  notes,  viz.,  that  the  order  of  the  priesthood 
is  really  nothing,  but  that  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
is  a  priest  as  much  as  a  real  priest,  and  that  every  man 
and  woman  may  consecrate  the  body  of  Christ,  and  say 
mass  as  well  as  a  priest,  and  hear  confessions  and 
absolve  as  well  as  a  priest  can  ;  and  that  there  is  no 
difference  between  priests  and  other  folks,  but  that  all 
are  one  congregation  and  company  without  any  dif- 
ference, save  appointment  to  preach." 

This  enables  men  to  understand  "  what  Tyndale 
means  by  using  the  word  Congregation  in  his  translation 
in  place  of  Church.  They  also  see  clearly  by  these  cir- 
cumstances that  he  purposely  changed  the  word  to  set 
forth  these  his  heresies,  though  he  will  say  he  takes 
them  for  no  heresies.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  all  good 
and  faithful  people  do,  and  therefore  they  call  the 
Church  the  Church  still,  and  will  not  agree  to  change 
the  old  Church  for  his  new  Congregation."  ^ 

In  reply  to  Tyndale's  claim  to  be  able  to  use  the 
word  Congregation  to  signify  the  Church,  More  declares 
that  words  must  be  used  in  their  ordinary  signification. 
"  I  say,"  he  writes,  "  that  this  is  true  of  the  usual 
signification  of  these  words  in  the  English  tongue,  by 
the  common  custom  of  us  English  people  that  now 
use  these  words  in  our  language,  or  have  used  them 

^  Ibid.,  p.  416. 


264      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

before  our  days.  And  I  say  that  this  common  custom 
and  usage  of  speech  is  the  only  way  by  which  we  know 
the  right  and  proper  signification  of  any  word.  So 
much  so  that  if  a  word  were  taken  from  Latin,  French, 
or  Spanish,  and  from  lack  of  understanding  the  tongue 
from  which  it  came,  was  used  in  English  for  something 
else  than  it  signified  in  the  other  tongue  ;  then  in  Eng- 
land, whatsoever  it  meant  anywhere  else,  it  means  only 
what  we  understand  it.  Then,  1  say,  that  in  England 
this  word  Congregation  never  did  signify  the  body  of 
Christian  people  .  .  .  any  more  than  the  word  as- 
sembly, which  has  been  taken  from  French  ...  as 
congregation  is  from  the  Latin.  ...  I  say  now  that 
the  word  Church  never  has  been  used  to  signify  in 
the  ordinary  speech  of  this  realm,  any  other  than  the 
body  of  all  those  that  are  christened.  For  this  reason, 
and  more  especially  because  of  Tyndale's  evil  intent,  I 
said,  and  still  say,  that  he  did  wrong  to  change  Church 
for  Congregation ;  a  holy  word  for  a  profane  one,  so  far 
as  they  have  signification  in  our  English  tongue,  into 
which  Tyndale  made  his  translation.   .   .   } 

"  If  Tyndale  had  done  it  either  accidentally,  or  pur- 
posely merely  for  pleasure,  and  not  with  an  evil  intent, 
I  would  never  have  said  a  word  against  it.  But  inas- 
much as  I  perceive  that  he  has  been  with  Luther,  and 
was  there  at  the  time  when  he  so  translated  it,  and 
because  I  knew  well  the  malicious  heresies  that  Luther 
had  begun  to  bring  forth,  I  must  needs  mistrust  him  in 
this  change.  And  now  I  say  that  even  from  his  own 
words  here  spoken,  you  may  perceive  his  cankered 
mind  in  his  translation,  for  he  says  that  Demetrius 
had   gathered   a   company    against    Paul   for  preaching 

^  Ibid.,  p.  417. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH    BIBLE  265 

against  images.  Here  the  Christian  reader  may  easily 
perceive  the  poison  of  this  serpent.  Every  one  knows 
that  all  good  Christian  people  abhor  the  idols  of  the 
false  pagan  gods,  and  also  honour  the  images  of  Christ 
and  our  Lady,  and  other  holy  saints.  And  as  they  call 
the  one  sort  images,  so  they  call  the  other  sort  idols. 
Now,  whereas  St.  Paul  preached  against  idols,  this  good 
man  comes  and  says  he  preached  against  images.  And 
as  he  here  speaks,  even  so  he  translates,  for  in  the  15th 
chapter  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Corinthians,  where  St.  Paul 
says,  '  I  have  written  to  you  that  ye  company  not 
together  ...  if  any  that  is  called  a  brother  be  ...  a 
worshipper  of  idols ' — there  Tyndale  translates  wor- 
shipper of  images.  Because  he  would  have  it  seem 
that  the  Apostle  had  in  that  place  forbidden  Christian 
men  to  worship  images  .  .  .  Here  you  may  see  the 
sincerity  and  plain  meaning  of  this  man's  transla- 
tion." 1   .   .   . 

"  As  he  falsely  translated  Ecclesia  into  the  unknown 
word  congregation,  in  places  where  he  should  have  trans- 
lated it  into  the  known  word  of  holy  Church,  and  this 
with  a  malicious  purpose  to  set  forth  his  heresy  of  the 
secret  and  unknown  church  wherein  is  neither  good 
works  nor  sacraments,  in  like  manner  is  it  now  proved, 
in  the  same  way  and  with  like  malice,  he  has  translated 
idols  into  images  ...  to  make  it  seem  that  Scripture 
reprobates  the  goodly  images  of  our  Saviour  Himself 
and  His  holy  saints.  .  .  .  Then  he  asks  me  why  I  have 
not  contended  with  Erasmus  whom  he  calls  my  dar- 
ling, for  translating  this  word  Ecclesia  into  the  word 
congregatio.  ...  I  have  not  contended  with  Erasmus, 
my  darling,  because   I   found   no  such   malicious  intent 

^  Ibid.,  p.  419. 


266      THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

with  Erasmus,  my  darling,  as  I  found  with  Tyndale  ; 
for  had  I  found  with  Erasmus,  my  darhng,  the  cunning 
intent  and  purpose  that  I  found  with  Tyndale,  Erasmus, 
my  darling,  should  be  no  more  '  my  darling.'  But  I 
find  in  Erasmus,  my  darling,  that  he  detests  and  abhors 
the  errors  and  heresies  that  Tyndale  plainly  teaches  and 
abides  by,  and  therefore  Erasmus,  my  darling,  shall  be 
my  darling  still.  .  .  .  For  his  translation  of  Ecclesia  by 
congregatio  is  nothing  like  Tyndale's,  for  the  Latin 
tongue  had  no  Latin  word  used  for  Church,  but  the 
Greek  word,  Ecclesia,  therefore  Erasmus,  in  his  new 
translation  gave  it  a  Latin  word.  But  we  in  our  Eng- 
lish had  a  proper  English  word  for  it,  and  therefore 
there  was  no  cause  for  Tyndale  to  translate  it  into  a 
worse.  Erasmus,  moreover,  meant  therein  no  heresy, 
as  appears  by  his  writings  against  heretics,  but  Tyndale, 
intended  nothing  else  thereby,  as  appears  by  the  here- 
sies that  he  himself  teaches  and  abides  by.  Therefore, 
there  was  in  this  matter  no  cause  for  me  to  contend 
with  Erasmus,  as  there  was  to  contend  with  Tyndale, 
with  whom  I  contended  for  putting  *  congregation ' 
instead  of  '  Church.'  "  ^ 

Further,  More  blames  Tyndale's  translation  in  its 
substitution  of  senior  or  elder  for  the  old-established 
word  priest.  This  word,  presbyter,  in  the  Greek,  he 
says,  "  as  it  signifies  the  thing  that  men  call  priest  in 
English,  was  sometimes  called  senior  in  Latin.  But 
the  thing  that  Englishmen  call  a  priest,  and  the  Greek 
church  called  presbyter,  and  the  Latin  church  also 
sometimes  called  senior,  was  never  called  elder  either 
in  the  Greek  church,  or  the  Latin  or  the  English.-  He 
considers,  therefore,  the  change  made  by  Tyndale,   in 

^  Ibid.,  p.  422.  -  Ibid.,  p.  424. 


THE   PRINTED  ENGLISH   BIBLE         267 

the  second  edition  of  his  translation,  from  senior  into 
elder  was  not  only  no  improvement,  but  a  distinct 
and  reiterated  rejection  of  the  well-understood  word 
of  priest.  ..."  I  said  and  say,"  he  continues,  "  that 
Tyndale  changed  the  word  priest  into  senior  with  the 
heretical  mind  and  intent  to  set  forth  his  heresy,  in 
which  he  teaches  that  the  priesthood  is  no  sacrament 
.  .  .  for  else  I  would  not  call  it  heresy  if  any  one 
would  translate  presbyteros  a  block,  but  I  would  say 
he  was  a  blockhead.  And  as  great  a  blockhead  were 
he  that  would  translate  presbyteros  into  an  elder  instead 
of  a  priest,  for  this  English  word  no  more  signifies 
an  elder  than  the  Greek  word  presbyteros  signifies  an 
elderstick."  ^  "  For  the  same  reason  he  might  change 
bishop  into  overseer,  and  deacon  into  server,  both  of 
which  he  might  as  well  do,  as  priest  into  elder  ;  and 
then  with  his  English  translation  he  must  make  us  an 
English  vocabulary  of  his  own  device,  and  so  with  such 
provision  he  may  change  chin  into  cheek,  and  belly 
into  back,  and  every  word  into  every  other  at  his  own 
pleasure,  if  all  England  like  to  go  to  school  with  Tyn- 
dale to  learn  English — but  else,  not  so." " 

In  the  same  way  More  condemns  Tyndale  for 
deliberately  changing  the  word  "  Grace,"  the  meaning 
of  which  was  fully  understood  by  Catholic  Englishmen, 
into  "  favour,"  "  thinking  that  his  own  scoffing  is  suffi- 
cient reason  to  change  the  known  holy  name  of  virtue 
through  all  Scripture  into  such  words  as  he  himself 
liketh."  '^  He  says  the  same  of  the  change  of  the  old 
familiar  words  Confession  into  knowledge,  and  penance  into 
repentance.      "  This  is  what  Tyndale   means  :  he  would 

^  Ibid.,  p.  425.  '•*  Ibid.,  p.  427. 

'^  Ibid.,  p.  435. 


268       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

have  all  willing  confession  quite  cast  away  and  all 
penance  doing  too."  ^  And  "  as  for  the  word  penance^ 
whatsoever  the  Greek  word  be,  it  ever  was,  and  still  is, 
lawful  enough  (if  Tyndale  give  us  leave)  to  call  any- 
thing in  English  by  whatever  word  Englishmen  by 
common  custom  agree  upon.  .  .  .  Now,  the  matter 
does  not  rest  in  this  at  all.  For  Tyndale  is  not  angry 
with  the  word,  but  with  the  matter.  For  this  grieves 
Luther  and  him  that  by  penance  we  understand,  when 
we  speak  of  it  .  .  .  not  mere  repenting  .  .  .  but  also 
every  part  of  the  Sacrament  of  Penance  ;  oral  confes- 
sion, contrition  of  heart,  and  satisfaction  by  good  deeds. 
For  if  we  called  it  the  Sacrament  of  repentance,  and  by 
that  word  would  understand  what  we  now  do  by  the 
word  penance,  Tyndale  would  then  be  as  angry  with 
repentance  as  he  is  now  with  penance."  2 

Speaking  specially  in  another  place  about  the 
change  of  the  old  word  charity  into  love  in  Tyndale's 
translation,  More  declared  that  he  would  not  much 
mind  which  word  was  used  were  it  not  for  the  evident 
intention  to  change  the  teaching.  When  it  is  done 
consistently  through  the  whole  book  "  no  man  could 
deem  but  that  the  man  meant  mischievously.  If  he 
called  charity  sometimes  by  the  bare  name  love,  I  would 
not  stick  at  that.  But  since  charity  signifies  in  English- 
men's ears  not  every  common  love,  but  a  good  virtuous 
and  well-ordered  love,  he  that  will  studiously  flee  from 
the  name  of  good  love,  and  always  speak  of  '  love,'  and 
always  leave  out  *  good,'  I  would  surely  say  he  meant 
evil.  And  it  is  much  more  than  likely.  For  it  is  to 
be  remembered  that  at  the  time  of  this  translation 
Huchins  (or  Tyndale)  was  with  Luther  in  Wittenberg, 

^  Ibid.,  p.  437.  2  Ibid,,  p.  493. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE  269 

and  put  certain  glosses  in  the  margins,  made  to  uphold 
the  ungracious  sect."  .  .  .  And  "  the  reason  why  he 
changed  the  name  of  charity  and  of  the  church  and  of 
priesthood  is  no  very  great  difficulty  to  perceive.  For 
since  Luther  and  his  fellows  amongst  their  other 
damnable  heresies  have  one  that  all  salvation  rests  on 
Faith  alone — therefore  he  purposely  works  to  diminish 
the  reverent  mind  that  men  have  to  charity,  and  for 
this  reason  changes  the  name  of  holy  virtuous  affec- 
tion into  the  bare  name  of  love." 

In  concluding  his  justification  of  the  condemnation 
of  Tyndale's  Testament  and  his  criticism  of  the  trans- 
lator's Defence,  Sir  Thomas  More  says  :  "  Every  man 
knows  well  that  the  intent  and  purpose  of  my  Dyalogue 
was  to  make  men  see  that  Tyndale  in  his  translation 
changed  the  common  known  words  in  order  to  make 
a  change  in  the  faith.  As  for  example  :  he  changed 
the  word  Church  into  this  word  congregation,  because  he 
would  raise  the  question  which  the  church  was,  and 
set  forth  Luther's  heresy  that  the  church  which  we 
should  believe  and  obey  is  not  the  common  known 
body  of  all  Christian  realms  remaining  in  the  faith  of 
Christ  and  not  fallen  away  or  cut  off  with  heresies. 
.  .  .  But  the  church  we  should  believe  and  obey  was 
some  secret  unknown  kind  of  evil  living  and  worse 
believing  heretics.  And  he  changed  priest  into  senior, 
because  he  intended  to  set  forth  Luther's  heresy  teaching 
that  priesthood  is  no  sacrament,  but  the  office  of  a 
layman  or  laywoman  appointed  by  the  people  to  preach. 
And  he  changed  Penance  into  repenting,  because  he  would 
set  forth  Luther's  heresy  teaching  that  penance  is  no 
sacrament.  This  being  the  only  purpose  of  my  Dyalogue, 
Tyndale   now  comes    and  expressly   confesses   what    I 


270      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

proposed  to  show.  For  he  indeed  teaches  and  writes 
openly  these  false  heresies  so  that  he  himself  shows 
now  that  I  then  told  the  people  the  truth  ...  his  own 
writing  shows  that  he  made  his  translation  to  the  intent 
to  set  forth  such  heresies  as  I  said  he  did."  ^ 

John  Standish  in  the  tract  on  the  vernacular 
Scriptures,  published  in  Queen  Mary's  reign,  uses  in 
some  places  the  same  language  as  Sir  Thomas  More 
in  condemning  the  translations  which  had  been  later 
in  vogue.  "At  all  times,"  he  writes,  "heretics  have 
laboured  to  corrupt  the  Scriptures  that  they  might 
serve  for  their  naughty  purposes  and  to  confirm  their 
errors  therewith,  but  especially  now  in  our  time.  O 
good  Lord,  how  have  the  translators  of  the  Bible  into 
English  purposely  corrupted  the  texts,  oft  maliciously 
putting  in  such  words  as  in  the  readers'  ears  might 
serve  for  the  proof  of  such  heresies  as  they  went  about 
to  sow.  These  are  not  only  set  forth  in  the  transla- 
tions, but  also  in  certain  prologues  and  glosses  added 
thereunto,  and  these  things  they  have  so  handled  (as 
indeed  it  is  no  great  mastery  to  do)  with  probable 
reasons  very  apparent  to  the  simple  and  unlearned, 
that  an  infinite  number  of  innocents  they  have  spiritu- 
ally poisoned  and  corrupted  within  this  realm,  and 
caused  them  to  perish  obstinately."  - 

If  further  proof  were  wanting  that  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  set  forth  by  Tyndale  was  purposely  designed 
to  overthrow  the  then  existing  religious  principles  held 
by  English  churchmen,  it  is  furnished  by  works  subse- 
quently published  by  the  English  Lutherans  abroad. 
The  tract  named    The  Burying  of  the  Mass,   printed   in 

1  Ibid.,  p.  422.     For  examples  of  other  false  translations,  see  also  p.  449. 
'  Standish,  A  discourse,  &c.,  u/  supra,  sig.  A.  iiij. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH    BIBLE         271 

Germany  shortly  after  the  burning  of  Tyndale's  Testa- 
ment, was,  as  Sir  Thomas  More  points  out,  intended 
as  a  direct  attack  upon  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass  and 
the  Sacramental  system.  In  it  the  author  poured  out 
the  vials  of  his  wrath  upon  all  those  who  caused 
Tyndale's  translation  of  the  New  Testament  to  be 
destroyed,  saying  that  they  burned  it  because  it 
destroyed  the  Mass.  "  By  this,"  adds  More,  "  you 
may  see  that  the  author  accounted  the  translation 
very  good  for  the  destruction  of  the  Mass."  ^  More- 
over, in  a  book  called  The  Wicked  Mammon,  published 
by  Tyndale  himself  shortly  after  this,  although  he 
blames  the  style  of  the  author  of  The  Burying  of  the 
Mass,  he  tacitly  accepts  his  assertion  that  his  translation 
of  the  New  Testament  was  intended  to  bring  about 
the  abolition  of  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass." 

In  later  times,  after  the  experience  of  the  religious 
changes  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  some  writers 
pointed  to  the  evils,  religious  and  social,  as  evidence 
of  the  harm  done  by  the  promiscuous  reading  of  the 
Scriptures.  In  their  opinion,  what  More  had  feared 
and  foretold  had  come  to  pass.  "  In  these  miserable 
years  now  past,"  says  Standish  of  Mary's  reign,  in  this 
tract  on  the  vernacular  Scriptures  :  "In  these  miser- 
able years  now  past,  what  mystery  is  so  hard  that  the 
ignorant  with  the  Bible  in  English  durst  not  set  upon, 
yea  and  say  they  understood  it :  all  was  light !  They 
desired  no  explanation  but  their  own,  even  in  the 
highest  mysteries.  .  .  .  Alas !  experience  shows  that 
our  own  men  through  having  the  Bible  in  English 
have  walked  far  above  their  reach,  being  sundry  ways 

^  English  Works,  p.  223. 
^  Ibid.,  p.  223. 


272       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

killed  and  utterly  poisoned  with  the  letter  of  the 
English  Bible."  ^ 

The  spirit  in  which  the  study  of  Sacred  Scripture 
was  taken  up  by  many  in  those  days  is  described  by 
the  Marian  preacher,  Roger  Edgworth,  already  re- 
ferred to.  "  Scripture,"  he  says,  "  is  in  worse  case 
than  any  other  faculty  :  for  where  other  faculties  take 
upon  them  no  more  than  pertaineth  to  their  own 
science,  as  (for  example)  the  physician  of  what  per- 
tains to  the  health  of  man's  body,  and  the  carpenter 
and  smith  of  their  own  tools  and  workmanship — the 
faculty  of  Sacred  Scripture  alone  is  the  knowledge 
which  all  men  and  women  challenge  and  claim  to 
themselves  and  for  their  own.  Here  and  there  the 
chattering  old  wife,  the  doting  old  man,  the  babbling 
sophister,  and  all  others  presume  upon  this  faculty, 
and  tear  it  and  teach  it  before  they  learn  it.  Of  all 
such  green  divines  as  I  have  spoken  of,  it  appeareth 
full  well  what  learning  they  have  by  this,  that  when 
they  teach  any  of  their  disciples,  and  when  they  give 
any  of  their  books  to  other  men  to  read,  the  first 
suggestion  why  he  should  labour  (at)  such  books  is 
'because  of  this,'  say  they,  'thou  shah  be  able  to 
oppose  the  best  priest  in  the  parish,  and  tell  him  he 
lies.' "  2 

The  result  is  patent  in  the  history  of  the  religious 
confusions  which  followed,  for  this  much  must  be 
allowed,  whatever  view  may  be  taken  of  the  good 
or  evil  which  ultimately  resuhed.  Dr.  Richard  Smith, 
in  1546,  then  states  the  position  as  he  saw  it:  "In 
old    times    the    faith    was    respected,    but    in    our  days 

1  Standish,  iit  supra,  sig.  E.  iiij. 
-  Roger  Edgworth,  Sermons,  f.  31. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE  273 

not  a  few  things,  and  not  of  small  importance,  but 
(alack  the  more  the  pity)  even  the  chiefest  and  most 
weighty  matters  of  religion  and  faith,  are  called  in 
question,  babbled  about,  talked  and  jangled  upon 
(reasoned,  I  cannot  and  ought  not  to  call  it),"  ^ 

Although  the  cry  for  the  open  Bible  which  had 
been  raised  by  Tyndale  and  the  other  early  English 
reformers  generally  assumed  the  right  to  free  and 
personal  interpretation  of  its  meaning,  no  sooner  was 
the  English  Scripture  put  into  circulation  than  its 
advocates  proclaimed  the  need  of  expositions  to  teach 
people  the  meaning  they  should  attach  to  it.  In  fact, 
the  marginal  notes  and  glosses,  furnished  by  Tyndale 
chiefly  from  Lutheran  sources,  are  evidence  that  even 
he  had  no  wish  that  the  people  should  understand  or 
interpret  the  sacred  text  otherwise  than  according  to 
his  peculiar  views.  Very  quickly  after  the  permission 
of  Henry  VIII.  had  allowed  the  circulation  of  the 
printed  English  Bible,  commentators  came  forward 
to  explain  their  views.  Lancelot  Ridley,  for  example, 
issued  many  such  explanations  of  portions  of  the 
Sacred  Text  with  the  object,  as  he  explains,  of  enabling 

^  The  assertion  and  defence  of  the  Sacrament  of  the  Altar  (1546),  f.  3. 
The  amateur  theologians  and  teachers  who  sprung  up  so  plentifully  with 
the  growth  of  Lutheran  ideas  in  England  seem  to  have  been  a  source  of 
trouble  to  the  clergy.  There  was  no  difficulty  in  Scripture  so  hard  which 
these  "barkers,  gnawers,  and  railers,"  as  Roger  Edgworth  calls  them,  were 
not  ready  to  explain,  and  even  women  were  ready  to  become  teachers  of 
God's  Word,  "and  openly  to  dispute  with  men."  Speaking  in  Bristol, 
in  Mary's  reign,  he  advises  his  audience  to  stick  to  their  own  occupations 
and  leave  theology  and  Scripture  alone,  "  for  when  a  tailor  forsaking  his 
own  occupation  will  be  a  merchant  venturer,  or  a  shoemaker  will  become 
a  grocer,  God  send  him  help.  I  have  known,"  he  says,  "  many  in  this  town 
that  studying  divinity  has  killed  a  merchant,  and  some  of  other  occupations  by 
their  busy  labours  in  the  Scripture  hath  shut  up  the  shop  windows,  and  were 
fain  to  take  sanctuary,  or  else  for  mercery  and  grocery  hath  been  fain  to  sell 
godderds,  steaves,  pitchers,  and  such  other  trumpery." 

S 


274      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

"  the  unlearned  to  declare  the  Holy  Scriptures  now 
suffered  to  all  people  of  this  realm  to  read  and  study 
at  their  pleasure."  For  the  Bible,  "  which  is  now 
undeclared  {i.e.  unexplained)  to  them,  and  only  had  in 
the  bare  letter,  appears  to  many  rather  death  than 
life,  rather  (calculated)  to  bring  many  to  errors  and 
heresies  than  into  the  truth  and  verity  of  God's  Word. 
For  this,  when  unexplained,  does  not  bring  the  simple, 
rude,  and  ignorant  people  from  their  ignorant  blind- 
ness, from  their  corrupt  and  backward  judgments,  false 
trusts,  evil  beliefs,  vain  superstitions,  and  feigned  holiness, 
in  which  the  people  have  long  been  in  blindness,  for 
lack  of  a  knowledge  of  Holy  Scripture  which  the  man 
of  Rome  kept  under  latch  and  would  not  suffer  to 
come  to  light,  that  his  usurped  power  should  not  have 
been  espied,  his  worldly  glory  diminished,  and  his 
profit  decayed."  ^ 

Again,  in  another  exposition  made  eight  years  later, 
the  same  writer  complains  that  still,  for  lack  of  teaching 
what  he  considers  the  true  meaning  of  Scripture,  the 
views  of  the  people  are  still  turned  towards  the  "  old 
superstitions  "  in  spite  of  "  the  open  Bible."  ''  Although 
the  Bible  be  in  English,"  he  says,  "  and  be  suffered  to 
every  man  and  woman  to  read  at  their  pleasures,  and 
commanded  to  be  read  every  day  at  Matins,  Mass,  and 
Evensong,  yet  there  remain  great  ignorance  and  corrupt 
judgments  .  .  .  and  these  will  remain  still,  except  the 
Holy  Scriptures  be  made  more  plain  to  the  lay  people 
who  are  unlearned  by  some  commentary  or  annotation, 
so  that  lay  people  may  understand  the  Holy  Scripture 
better."  ^     Commentaries  would  help  much,  he  says  in 

^  A  Commentary  in  Englyshe  upon  Sayncte  Pauleys  Epistle  to  the  Epkesians, 
1540. 

"^  An  Exposition  in  Englysh  upon  the  Epistle  of  St.  Panic  to  the  Colossians,. 
1548. 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE  275 

another  place,  "  to  deliver  the  people  from  ignorance, 
darkness,  errors,  heresy,  superstitions,  false  trusts,  and 
from  evil  opinions  fixed  and  rooted  in  the  hearts  of 
many  for  lack  of  true  knowledge  of  God's  Holy  Word, 
and  expel  the  usurped  power  of  the  bishop  of  Rome 
and  all  Romish  dregs."  ^ 

It  is  interesting  to  find  that  from  the  first,  whilst 
objecting  to  the  interpretation  of  the  old  teachers  of 
the  Church,  and  claiming  that  the  plain  text  of  Scrip- 
ture was  a  sufficient  antidote  and  complete  answer 
to  them  and  their  traditional  deductions,  the  "  new 
teachers "  found  that  without  teaching  and  exposition 
on  their  part,  the  open  Bible  was  by  no  means  sufficient 
to  wean  the  popular  mind  from  what  they  regarded  as 
superstitious  and  erroneous  ways.  Their  attitude  in 
the  matter  is  at  least  a  confirmation  of  the  contention 
of  Sir  Thomas  More  and  other  contemporary  Catholic 
writers,  that  the  vernacular  Scriptures  would  be  useless 
without  a  teaching  authority  to  interpret  their  meaning. 

A  brief  word  may  now  be  said  as  a  summary  of 
the  attitude  towards  the  vernacular  Bible  taken  up  by 
the  ecclesiastical  authorities  on  the  eve  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. The  passages  quoted  from  Sir  Thomas  More 
make  it  evident  that  no  such  hostility  on  the  part  of 
the  Church,  as  writers  of  all  shades  of  opinion  have  too 
hastily  assumed,  really  existed.^     In  fact,  though  those 

^  An  Exposition,  Sec,  upon  the  Philippiatis,  1545. 

-  As  an  example  of  the  open  way  in  which  the  reading  of  the  Bible  was 
advocated,  take  the  following  instance.  Caxton's  translation  of  the  VittB 
Patrum,  published  by  Wynkyn  de  Worde  in  1495,  contained  an  exhortation 
to  all  his  readers  to  study  the  Holy  Scripture.  "To  read  them  is  in  part 
to  know  the  felicity  eternal,  for  in  them  a  man  may  see  what  he  ought  to  do 
in  conversation  ...  oft  to  read  purgeth  the  soul  from  sin,  it  engendereth 
dread  of  God,  and  it  keeps  the  soul  from  eternal  damnation."  As  food 
nourishes  the  body,  "in  like  wise  as  touching  the  soul  we  be  nourished  by 


276      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

responsible  for  the  conduct  of  affairs,  both  ecclesias- 
tical and  lay,  at  this  period  objected  to  the  circulation 
of  Tyndale's  printed  New  Testament,  this  objection 
was  based,  not  on  any  dread  of  allowing  the  English 
Bible  as  such,  but  on  the  natural  objection  to  an 
obviously  incorrect  translation.  It  is  difficult  to  see 
how  those  in  authority  could  have  permitted  a  version 
with  traditional  words  changed  for  the  hardly  concealed 
purpose  of  supporting  Lutheran  tenets,  with  texts 
garbled  and  marginal  explanations  inserted  for  the 
same  end.  Those  who  hold  that  Tyndale's  views  were 
right,  and  even  that  his  attempt  to  enforce  them  in 
this  way  was  justifiable,  can  hardly,  however,  blame 
the  authorities  at  that  time  in  England,  secular  or  lay, 
who  did  not  think  so,  from  doing  all  they  could  to 
prevent  what  they  regarded  as  the  circulation  of  a 
book  calculated  to  do  great  harm  if  no  means  were 
taken  to  prevent  it.  Men's  actions  must  be  judged 
by  the  circumstances  under  which  they  acted,  and  it 
would  be  altogether  unjust  to  regard  the  prohibition 
of  the  Tyndale  Scriptures  as  a  final  attempt  on  the  part 
of  the  English  Church  to  prevent  the  circulation  of  the 
vernacular  Scriptures.  To  the  authorities  in  those  days 
at  least,  the  book  in  question  did  not  represent  the 
Sacred  Text  at  all.  That  it  was  full  of  errors,  to  say 
the  least,  is  confessed  by  Tyndale  himself  ;  and  as  to 
the  chief  points  in  his  translation  which  he  defended 
and  which  Sir  Thomas  More  so  roundly  condemned, 
posterity  has  sided  with  More  and  not  with  Tyndale, 
for  not  one  of  these  special  characteristics  of  the  trans- 

the  lecture  and  reading  of  Scripture.  ...  Be  diligent  and  busy  to  read  the 
Scriptures,  for  in  reading  them  the  natural  wit  and  understanding  are 
augmented  in  so  much  that  men  find  that  which  ought  to  be  left  (undone) 
.and  take  that  whereof  may  ensue  profit  infinite  "  (p.  345). 


THE   PRINTED   ENGLISH   BIBLE  277 

lation  in  which  so  much  of  Tyndale's  Lutheran  teaching 
was  allowed  to  appear,  was  suffered  to  remain  in 
subsequent  revisions.  From  this  point  of  view  alone, 
those  who  examine  the  question  with  an  unbiassed 
mind  must  admit  that  there  was  ample  justification  for 
the  prohibition  of  Tyndale's  printed  Testament.  If  this 
be  so,  the  further  point  may  equally  well  be  conceded, 
namely,  that  the  Church  on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation 
did  not  prohibit  the  vernacular  Scriptures  as  such  at 
all,  and  that  many  churchmen  in  common  with  the 
king,  Sir  Thomas  More,  and  other  laymen,  would, 
under  happier  circumstances,  have  been  glad  to  see  a 
properly  translated  English  Bible. 


CHAPTER   IX 

TEACHING   AND   PREACHING 

It  is  very  commonly  assumed  that  on  the  eve  of  the 
Reformation,  and  for  a  long  period  before,  there  was 
httle  in  the  way  of  popular  religious  instruction  in 
England.  We  are  asked  to  believe  that  the  mass  of 
the  people  were  allowed  to  grow  up  in  ignorance  of 
the  meaning  of  the  faith  that  was  in  them,  and  in  a 
studied  neglect  of  their  supposed  religious  practices. 
So  certain  has  this  view  of  the  pre-Reformation  Church 
seemed  to  those  who  have  not  inquired  very  deeply 
into  the  subject,  that  more  than  one  writer  has  been 
led  by  this  assumption  to  assert  that  perhaps  the  most 
obvious  benefit  of  the  religious  upheaval  of  the  sixteenth 
century  was  the  introduction  of  some  general  and 
systematic  teaching  of  the  great  truths  of  religion. 
Preaching  is  often  considered  as  characterising  the 
reforming  movement,  as  contrasted  with  the  old  eccle- 
siastical system,  which  it  is  assumed  certainly  admitted, 
even  if  it  did  not  positively  encourage,  ignorance  as  the 
surest  foundation  of  its  authority.  It  becomes  of  im- 
portance, therefore,  to  inquire  if  such  a  charge  is 
founded  upon  fact,  and  to  see  how  far,  if  at  all,  the 
people  in  Catholic  England  were  instructed  in  their 
religion. 

At  the   outset,   it   should   be   remembered  that  the 

questions  at  issue  in  the  sixteenth  century  were  not,  in 

278 


TEACHING  AND   PREACHING  279 

the  first  place  at  least,  connected  with  the  influence  of 
religious  teaching  on  the  lives  of  the  people  at  large. 
No  one  contended  that  the  reformed  doctrines  would 
be  found  to  make  people  better,  or  would  help  them 
to  lead  lives  more  in  conformity  with  Gospel  teaching. 
The  question  of  what  may  be  called  practical  religion 
never  entered  into  the  disputes  of  the  time.  Mr.  Brewer 
warns  the  student  of  the  history  of  this  period  that  he 
will  miss  the  meaning  of  many  things  altogether,  and 
quite  misunderstand  their  drift,  if  he  starts  his  inquiry 
by  regarding  the  Reformation  as  the  creation  of  light 
to  illuminate  a  previous  period  of  darkness,  or  the 
evolution  of  practical  morality  out  of  a  state  of  ante- 
cedent chaotic  corruption.  "  In  fact,"  he  says,  "  the 
sixteenth  century  was  not  a  mass  of  moral  corruption 
out  of  which  life  emerged  by  some  process  unknown  to 
art  or  nature ;  it  was  not  an  addled  egg  cradling  a 
living  bird  ;  quite  the  reverse."  For,  as  the  historian  of 
the  German  people,  Janssen,  points  out,  the  truth  is  that 
the  entire  social  order  of  the  Middle  Ages  "was  estab- 
lished on  the  doctrine  of  good  works  being  necessary 
for  the  salvation  of  the  Christian  soul."  Whilst,  as 
Mr.  Brewer  again  notes,  Luther's  most  earnest  remon- 
strances were  directed  not  against  bad  works,  but  against 
the  undue  stress  laid  by  the  advocates  of  the  old  religion 
upon  good  works.  Moreover,  an  age  which  could  busy 
itself  about  discussions  of  questions  as  to  "  righteous- 
ness," whether  of  "  faith  or  works,"  "  is  not  a  de- 
moralised or  degenerate  age.  These  are  not  the 
thoughts  of  men  buried  in  sensuality." 

Two  questions  are  contained  in  the  inquiry  as  to 
pre-Reformation  religious  teaching,  namely,  as  to  its 
extent  and  as  to  its  character.     There  can  hardly  be 


28o       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

much  doubt  that  the  duty  of  giving  instruction  to  the 
people  committed  to  their  charge  was  fully  recognised 
by  the  clergy  in  mediceval  times.  In  view  of  the  posi- 
tive legislation  of  various  synods  on  the  subject  of 
regular  and  systematic  teaching,  as  well  as  of  the 
constant  repetition  of  the  obligation  in  the  books  of 
English  canon  law,  it  is  obvious  that  the  priests  were 
not  ignorant  of  what  was  their  plain  duty.  From  the 
time  of  the  constitution  of  Archbishop  Peckham  at  the 
Synod  of  Oxford  in  1 281,  to  the  time  of  the  religious 
changes,  there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  that  the 
ordinance  contained  in  the  following  words  was  ob- 
served in  every  parish  church  in  the  country  :  "  We 
order,"  says  the  Constitution,  "that  every  priest  having 
the  charge  of  a  flock  do,  four  times  in  each  year  (that 
is,  once  each  quarter)  on  one  or  more  solemn  feast 
days,  either  himself  or  by  some  one  else,  instruct  the 
people  in  the  vulgar  language  simply  and  without  any 
fantastical  admixture  of  subtle  distinctions,  in  the 
articles  of  the  Creed,  the  Ten  Commandments,  the 
Evangelical  Precepts,  the  seven  works  of  mercy,  the 
seven  deadly  sins  with  their  offshoots,  the  seven  prin- 
cipal virtues,  and  the  seven  Sacraments." 

This  means  that  the  whole  range  of  Christian 
teaching,  dogmatic  and  moral,  was  to  be  explained  to 
the  people  four  times  in  every  year  ;  and  in  order  that 
there  should  be  no  doubt  about  the  matter,  the  Synod 
proceeds  to  set  out  in  considerable  detail  each  of  the 
points  upon  which  the  priest  was  to  instruct  his  people. 
During  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  the  great 
number  of  manuals  intended  to  help  the  clergy  in  the 
execution  of  this  law  attest  the  fact  that  it  was  fully 
recognised  and  very  generally  complied  with.     When 


TEACHING  AND   PREACHING  281 

at  the  close  of  the  latter  century,  the  invention  of 
printing  made  the  multiplication  of  such  manuals  easy, 
the  existence  both  of  printed  copies  of  this  Constitution 
of  Archbishop  Peckham,  and  of  printed  tracts  drawn 
up  to  give  every  assistance  to  the  parochial  clergy  in 
the  preparation  of  these  homely  teachings,  proves  that 
the  law  was  understood  and  acted  upon.  In  the  face 
of  such  evidence  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that,  what- 
ever may  have  been  the  case  as  to  set  sermons  and 
formal  discourses,  simple,  straightforward  teaching  was 
not  neglected  in  pre-Reformation  England,  and  every 
care  was  taken  that  the  clergy  might  be  furnished  with 
material  suitable  for  the  fundamental  religious  teaching 
contemplated  by  the  law.  As  late  as  1466,  a  synod  of 
the  York  Province,  held  by  Archbishop  Nevill,  not 
only  reiterated  this  general  decree  about  regular  quar- 
terly instructions  of  a  simple  and  practical  kind,  but 
set  out  at  great  length  the  points  of  these  lessons  in 
the  Christian  faith  and  life  upon  which  the  parish 
priests  were  to  insist. 

Even  set  discourses  of  a  more  formal  kind,  though 
probably  by  no  means  so  frequent  as  in  these  times, 
when  they  have  to  a  great  extent  superseded  the  simple 
instructions  of  old  Catholic  days,  were  by  no  means 
neglected.  Volumes  of  such  sermons  in  manuscript 
and  in  print,  as  well  as  all  that  is  known  of  the  great 
discourses  constantly  being  delivered  at  St.  Paul's 
Cross,  may  be  taken  as  sufficient  evidence  of  this. 
For  the  conveyance  of  moral  and  religious  instruction, 
however,  the  regular  and  homely  talks  of  a  parish 
priest  to  his  people  were  vastly  more  important  than 
the  set  orations,  and  it  is  with  these  familiar  instruc- 
tions that  the  student  of  this  period  of  our  history  has 


2  82      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

chiefly  to  concern  himself.  All  the  available  evidence 
goes  to  show  that  the  giving  of  these  v^^as  not  only 
regarded  as  an  obligation  on  the  pastor  ;  but  attend- 
ance at  them  was  looked  upon  as  a  usual  and  necessary 
portion  of  the  Christian  duty.  For  example,  in  the 
examinations  of  conscience  intended  to  assist  lay 
people  in  their  preparation  for  the  Sacrament  of  pen- 
ance, there  are  indications  that  any  neglect  to  attend 
at  these  parochial  instructions  was  considered  suffi- 
ciently serious  to  become  a  matter  of  confession.  It 
is,  of  course,  hardly  conceivable  that  this  should  be 
so,  if  the  giving  of  these  popular  lessons  in  the  duties 
of  the  Christian  life  was  neglected  by  the  priests,  or 
if  they  were  not  commonly  frequented  by  the  laity. 
To  take  a  few  instances.  "Also,"  runs  one  such  exa- 
mination, "  I  have  been  slow  in  God's  service,  and 
negligent  to  pray  and  to  go  to  church  in  due  time  .  .  . 
loth  to  hear  the  Word  of  God,  and  the  preacher  of 
the  Word  of  God.  Neither  have  I  imprinted  it  in  my 
heart  and  borne  it  away  and  wrought  thereafter."  ^ 
Again :  "  I  have  been  setting  nought  by  preaching 
and  teaching  of  God's  Word,  by  thinking  it  an  idle 
thing."  -  And,  to  take  an  example  of  the  view  taken 
in  such  documents  as  to  the  priest's  duty  :  "  If  you  are 
a  priest  be  a  true  lantern  to  the  people  both  in  speaking 
and  in  living,  and  faithfully  and  truly  do  all  things 
which  pertain  to  a  priest.  Seek  wisely  the  ground  of 
truth  and  the  true  office  of  the  priesthood,  and  be 
not  ruled  blindly  by  the  lewd  customs  of  the  world. 
Read  God's  law  and  the  Expositions  of  the  Holy 
Doctors,  and  study  and  learn  and  keep    it,  and  when 

1  B.  Mus.  Harl.  MS.  172,  f.  12b. 

2  Harl.  MS.  115,  f.  51. 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING     283 

thou  knowest  it,  preach  and  teach  it  to  those  that  are 
unlearned."  ^ 

Richard  Whitford,  the  Monk  of  Sion,  in  his  Work 
for  Householders,  published  first  in  1530,  lays  great 
stress  upon  the  obligation  of  parents  and  masters  to 
see  that  those  under  their  charge  attended  the  instruc- 
tions given  in  the  parish  church.  Some  may  perhaps 
regard  his  greater  anxiety  for  their  presence  at  sermons 
rather  than  at  Mass,  when  it  was  not  possible  for  them 
to  be  at  both,  as  doubtful  advice.  In  this,  however,  he 
agrees  with  the  author  of  what  was  the  most  popular 
book  of  instructions  at  this  period,  and  the  advice  itself 
is  proof  that  the  obligation  of  attending  instructions  was 
regarded  as  sufficiently  serious  to  be  contrasted  with 
that  of  hearing  Mass.  Speaking  of  the  Sunday  duties, 
Whitford  says  :  ''  At  church  on  Sundays  see  after  those 
who  are  under  your  care.  And  charge  them  also 
to  keep  their  sight  in  the  church  close  upon  their  book 
and  beads.  And  whilst  they  are  young  accustom  them 
always  to  kneel,  stand,  and  sit,  and  never  walk  in  the 
church.  And  let  them  hear  the  Mass  quietly  and 
devoutly,  much  part  kneeling.  But  at  the  Gospel,  the 
Preface,  and  at  the  Paternoster  teach  them  to  stand 
and  to  make  curtesy  at  the  word  Jesus,  as  the  priest 
does.  ...  If  there  be  a  sermon  any  time  of  the  day 
let  them  be  present,  all  that  are  not  occupied  in  need- 
ful and  lawful  business  ;  all  other  (occupations)  laid 
aside  let  them  ever  keep  the  preachings,  rather  than 
the  Mass,  if,  perchance,  they  may  not  hear  both." 

Nothing  could  possibly  be  more  definite  or  explicit 
upon  the  necessity  of  popular  instructions  and  upon 
the  duty  incumbent  upon  the  clergy  of  giving  proper 

^  Ibid.,  f.  53. 


284      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

vernacular  teaching  to  their  flocks  than  the  author  of 
Dives  et  Pauper^  the  most  popular  of  the  fifteenth-cen- 
tury books  of  religious  instruction.  In  fact,  on  this 
point  his  language  is  as  strong  and  uncompromising  as 
that  which  writers  have  too  long  been  accustomed  to 
associate  with  the  name  of  Wycliffe.  No  more  unwar- 
ranted assumption  has  ever  been  made  in  the  name 
of  history  than  that  which  classed  under  the  head  of 
Lollard  productions  almost  every  fifteenth-century  tract 
in  English,  especially  such  as  dealt  openly  with  abuses 
needing  correction,  and  pleaded  for  simple  vernacular 
teaching  of  religion.  This  is  what  the  author  of  Dives 
et  Pauper  says  about  preaching  :  "  Since  God's  word  is 
life  and  salvation  of  man's  soul,  all  those  who  hinder 
them  that  have  authority  of  God,  and  by  Orders  taken, 
to  preach  and  teach,  from  preaching  and  teaching  God's 
word  and  God's  law,  are  manslayers  ghostly.  They  are 
guilty  of  as  many  souls  that  perish  by  the  hindering  of 
God's  word,  and  namely  those  proud,  covetous  priests 
and  curates  who  can  neither  teach,  nor  will  teach,  nor 
suffer  others  that  both  can  and  will  and  have  authority 
to  teach  and  preach  of  God  and  of  the  bishop  who  gave 
them  Orders,  but  prevent  them  for  fear  lest  they  should 
get  less  from  their  subjects,  or  else  the  less  be  thought 
of,  or  else  that  their  sins  should  be  known  by  the 
preaching  of  God's  word.  Therefore,  they  prefer  to 
leave  their  own  sins  openly  reproved  generally,  among 
other  men's  sins.  As  St.  Anselm  saith,  God's  word 
ought  to  be  worshipped  as  much  as  Christ's  body,  and 
he  sins  as  much  who  hindereth  God's  word  and  despis- 
eth  God's  word,  or  taketh  it  recklessly  as  he  that  de- 
spiseth  God's  body,  or  through  his  negligence  letteth  it 
fall  to  the  ground.     On   this  place  the  gloss  showeth 


TEACHING  AND   PREACHING  285 

that  it  is  more  profitable  to  hear  God's  word  in  preach- 
ing than  to  hear  a  Mass,  and  that  a  man  should  rather 
forbear  his  Mass  than  his  sermon.  For,  by  preaching, 
folks  are  stirred  to  contrition,  and  to  forsake  sin  and 
the  fiend,  and  to  love  God  and  goodness,  and  (by  it) 
they  be  illumined  to  know  their  God,  and  virtue  from 
vice,  truth  from  falsehood,  and  to  forsake  errors  and 
heresies.  By  the  Mass  they  are  not  so,  but  if  they 
come  to  Mass  in  sin  they  go  away  in  sin,  and  shrews 
they  come  and  shrews  they  wend  away.  .  .  .  Neverthe- 
less, the  Mass  profiteth  them  that  are  in  grace  to  get 
grace  and  forgiveness  of  sin.  .  .  .  Both  are  good,  but 
the  preaching  of  God's  word  ought  to  be  more  dis- 
charged and  more  desired  than  the  hearing  of  Mass."  ^ 

In  the  same  way  the  author  of  a  little  book  named 
The  Interprctatyon  and  Sygnyfycacyon  of  the  Masse,  printed 
by  Robert  Wyer  in  1532,  insists  on  the  obligation  of 
attending  the  Sunday  instruction.  "  On  each  Sunday," 
he  says,  "  he  shall  also  hear  a  sermon,  if  it  be  pos- 
sible, for  if  a  man  did  lose  or  omit  it  through 
contempt  or  custom,  he  would  sin  greatly."  -  And  in 
The  Myrrour  of  the  Church,  the  author  tells  those  who 
desire  "  to  see  the  Will  of  God  in  Holy  Scripture,"  but 
being  of  "  simple  learning  "  and  "  no  cunning  "  cannot 
read,  that  they  may  do  so  ''  in  open  sermon,  or  in 
secret  collation  "  with  those  who  can.  And  in  speak- 
ing of  the  Sunday  duties  he  tells  his  readers  not  to 
lie  in  bed,  "  but  rising  promptly  you  shall  go  to  the 
church,    and   with    devotion    say   your    matins   without 

1  In  speaking  of  the  third  Commandment,  The  art  of  good  lyvyng  and 
good  deyng  (1503)  warns  people  of  their  obligation  to  "  Layr  the  holy  prech- 
yngys,  that  ys  the  word  of  God  et  the  good  techyngys,  and  shoold  not  go  from 
the  seyd  prechyngs  "  (fol.  8.  2). 

=  Ibid.,  f.  I. 


286      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

jangling.  Also  sweetly  hear  your  Mass  and  all  the 
hours  of  the  day.  And  then  if  there  is  any  preacher 
in  the  church  who  proposes  to  make  a  sermon,  you 
shall  sweetly  hear  the  Word  of  God  and  keep  it  in 
remembrance."  ^  And  lastly,  to  take  one  more  ex- 
ample, in  Wynkyn  de  Worde's  Exornatorium  Curatorum, 
printed  to  enable  those  having  the  cure  of  souls  to 
perform  the  duties  of  instruction  laid  down  by  Arch- 
bishop Peckham's  Provincial  Constitution,  whilst  setting 
forth  a  form  of  examination  of  conscience  under  the 
head  of  the  deadly  sins,  the  author  bids  the  curate 
teach  his  people  to  ask  themselves :  "  Whether  you 
have  been  slothful  in  God's  service,  and  specially  upon 
the  Sunday  and  the  holy  day  whether  you  have  been 
slothful  to  come  to  church,  slothful  to  pray  when  you 
have  been  there,  and  slothful  to  hear  the  Word  of 
God  preached.  Furthermore,  whether  you  have  been 
negligent  to  learn  your  Pater  Noster^  your  Ave  Maria, 
or  your  Creed,  or  whether  you  have  been  negligent 
to  teach  the  same  to  your  ov^n  children  or  to  your 
god-children.  Examine  yourself  also  whether  you  have 
taught  your  children  good  manners,  and  guarded  them 
from  danger  and  bad  company."  The  same  book 
insists  on  the  need  of  such  examination  of  conscience 
daily,  or  at  least  weekly.^ 

The  following  in  this  connection  is  of  interest  as 
being  a  daily  rule  of  life  recommended  to  laymen 
in  the  English  Prymer  printed  at  Rouen  in  1538  : 
"  First     rise     up     at     six     o'clock     in     the     morning 

1   The  Myrrour  of  the  Church  (1527),  Sig.  B4. 

*  Exornatorium  Curator  urn.  W.  de  Worde.  In  1 5 18  the  Synod  of  Ely 
ordered  that  all  having  the  cure  of  souls  should  have  a  copy  of  this  book,  and 
four  times  a  year  should  explain  it  in  English  to  their  people.  (Wilkins, 
Concilia,  III.,  p.  712.) 


TEACHING  AND   PREACHING  287 

at  all  seasons,  and  in  rising  do  as  follows :  Thank 
our  Lord  who  has  brought  you  to  the  beginning  of 
the  day.  Commend  yourself  to  God,  to  Our  Lady 
Saint  Mary,  and  to  the  saint  whose  feast  is  kept  that 
day,  and  to  all  the  saints  in  heaven.  When  you  have 
arrayed  yourself  say  in  your  chamber  or  lodging. 
Matins,  Prime,  and  Hours,  if  you  may.  Then  go  to 
the  church  before  you  do  any  worldly  works  if  you 
have  no  needful  business,  and  abide  in  the  church  the 
space  of  a  low  mass  time,  where  you  shall  think  on  God 
and  thank  Him  for  His  benefits.  Think  awhile  on  the 
goodness  of  God,  on  His  divine  might  and  virtue.  .  .  . 
If  you  cannot  be  so  long  in  the  church  on  account  of 
necessary  business,  take  some  time  in  the  day  in  your 
house  in  which  to  think  of  these  things."  .  .  .  Take 
your  meal  "  reasonably  without  excess  or  overmuch 
forbearing  of  your  meat,  for  there  is  as  much  danger 
in  too  little  as  in  too  much.  If  you  fast  once  in  a 
week  it  is  enough,  besides  Vigils  and  Ember  days  out 
of  Lent."  After  dinner  rest  "  an  hour  or  half-an-hour, 
praying  God  that  in  that  rest  He  will  accept  your  health 
to  the  end,  that  after  it  you  may  serve  Him  the  more 
devoutly." 

"...  As  touching  your  service,  say  up  to  Tierce 
before  dinner,  and  make  an  end  of  all  before  supper. 
And  when  you  are  able  say  the  Dirge  and  Commenda- 
tions for  all  Christian  souls,  at  least  on  holy  days,  and 
if  you  have  leisure  say  them  on  other  days,  at  least 
with  three  lessons.  Shrive  yourself  every  week  to  your 
curate,  except  you  have  some  great  hindrance.  And 
beware  that  you  do  not  pass  a  fortnight  unless  you 
have  a  very  great  hindrance.  If  you  have  the  means 
refuse  not  your  alms  to  the  first  poor  body  that  asketh 


288      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

it  of  you  that  day.  Take  care  to  hear  and  keep  the 
Word  of  God.  Confess  you  every  day  to  God  without 
fail  of  such  sins  you  know  you  have  done  that  day." 
Think  often  of  our  Lord's  Passion,  and  at  night  when 
you  wake  turn  your  thoughts  to  what  our  Lord  was 
doing  at  that  hour  in  His  Passion.  In  your  life  look 
for  a  faithful  friend  to  whom  you  may  open  "  your 
secrets,"  and  when  found  follow  his  advice.  No  doubt 
this  ''  manner  to  live  well "  will  perhaps  hardly  re- 
present what  people  at  this  time  ordinarily  did.  But 
the  mere  fact  that  it  could  be  printed  as  a  Christian's 
daily  rule  of  life  as  late  as  1538,  is  evidence  at 
any  rate  that  people  took  at  the  least  as  serious  a 
view  of  their  obligations  in  religious  matters  as  we 
should.^  In  the  same  way  The  art  of  good  lytytigy 
quoted  above,  suggests  as  the  proper  way  to  sanctify 
the  Sunday :  Meditations  on  death,  the  pains  of  hell, 
and  the  joys  of  Paradise.  Time  should  be  given  to 
reading  the  lives  of  the  saints,  to  saying  Matins,  and 
studying  the  Paternoster  and  the  Creed.  Others 
should  be  exhorted  to  enter  into  God's  service,  and 
fathers  of  famihes  are  bound  to  see  that  "  their 
children,  servants,  and  families  go  to  church  and  hear 
the  preachings."  ^ 

By  far  the  most  interesting  and  important  part  of 
any  inquiry  on  the  subject  of  pre-Reformation  instruc- 
tions, regards  of  course  their  nature  and  effect.  We  are 
asked  to  believe  that  the  people  were  allowed  to  grow 
up  in  ignorance  of  the  true  nature  of  religion,  and  with 
superstitions  in  their  hearts  which  the  clergy  could 
easily  have  corrected  ;  but  which  they,  on  the  contrary, 

^    The  Prymer  of  Salisbury  Use.     Rouen  :  Nicholas  le  Rour,  f.  b.  vij. 
-   The  art  of  good  lyvyng  and  good  deyng.     Paris,  1503,  f.  g.  2. 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING     289 

rather  fostered  as  likely  to  prove  of  pecuniary  value  to 
themselves.    To  keep  the  people  ignorant  (it  is  said)  was 
their  great  object,  as  it  was  through  the  ignorance  of  the 
lay  folk  that  the  clergy  hoped  to   maintain   their  influ- 
ence and  ascendency,  and,  it  is  suggested,  to  draw  money 
out    of    the    pockets    of    the    faithful.     The    reverence 
which   was  paid  at  this  time  to  images  of   the   saints, 
and   in    an   especial    manner   to    the   crucifix,   is    often 
adduced  as  proof  that  the  people  were  evidently  badly 
instructed  in  the  nature  of  religious  worship  ;  and  the 
destruction  of  statues,  paintings,  and  pictured  glass  by 
the   advanced  reformers  is  thought  to   be  explained,  if 
not   excused,  by  the   absolute   need   of  putting  a  stop 
once  for  all  to  a  crying  abuse.     The  explanation  given 
to   the   people    by   their  religious  teachers   on  the  eve 
of  the  religious   changes  on  this  matter  of  devotion  to 
the   saints,  and  of  the    nature  of  the  reverence  to  be 
paid  to  their  representations,  may  be  taken  as  a  good 
sample  of  the  practical  nature  of  the  general  instruc- 
tions imparted  in  those  times.     The  question  divested 
of  all  ambiguity  is  really  this  :  Were  the  people  taught 
to  understand  the  nature  of  an  image  or  representation, 
or   were    they   allowed    to    regard   them  as    objects   of 
reverence  in  themselves — that  is,  as  idols  ?     The  material 
for    a   reply   to    this    inquiry    is   fortunately    abundant. 
The  Dyalogiic  of  Sir  Thomas  More  was  written  in  1528, 
in  order  to  maintain  the  Catholic  teaching  about  images, 
relics,  and  the  praying  to  saints.     To  this,  then,  an  in- 
quirer naturally  turns  in  the  first  place  for  an  exposition 
of  the  common  belief  in  these  matters  ;  for  Sir  Thomas 
claims    that    in    his   tract    he    is    defending    only    "  the 
common  faith  and  belief  of  Christ's  Church."      "What 
this    is,"   he    says,    "  I    am    very  sure ;  and    perceive    it 

T 


290       THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

well  not  only  by  experience  of  my  own  time  and  the 
places  where  I  have  myself  been  to,  with  the  common 
report  of  other  honest  men  from  all  other  places  of 
Christendom."  After  having  explained  that  the  com- 
mandment of  God  had  reference  to  idols  or  images 
worshipped  as  gods,  and  not  to  mere  representations 
of  Christ,  our  Lady,  or  the  Saints,^  he  continues  :  "  but 
neither  Scripture  nor  natural  reason  forbids  a  man  to 
reverence  an  image,  not  fixing  his  final  intent  on  the 
image,  but  referring  the  honour  to  the  person  the 
image  represents.  In  such  reverence  shown  to  an 
image  there  is  no  honour  withdrawn  from  God  ;  but 
the  saint  is  honoured  in  his  image,  and  God  in  His 
saint.  When  a  man  of  mean  birth  and  an  ambassador 
to  a  great  king  has  high  honour  done  to  him,  to  whom 
does  that  honour  redound,  to  the  ambassador  or  to  the 
king  ?  When  a  man  on  the  recital  of  his  prince's  letter 
puts  off  his  cap  and  kisses  it,  does  he  reverence  the 
paper  or  his  prince  ?  .  .  .  All  names  spoken  and  all 
words  written  are  no  material  signs  or  images,  but  are 
made  only  by  consent  and  agreement  of  men  to  be- 
token and  signify  such  things,  whereas  images  painted, 
graven,  or  carved,  may  be  so  well  wrought  and  so 
near  to  the  life  and  the  truth,  that  they  will  naturally 
and  much  more  effectually  represent  the  thing  than  the 
name  either  spoken  or  written.  .  .  .  These  two  words, 
Christus  crucifixusy  do  not  represent  to  us,  either  to  lay- 
men or  to  the  learned,  so  lively  a  remembrance  of  His 
bitter  Passion  as  does  a  blessed  image  of  the  crucifix, 
and  this  these  heretics  perceive  well  enough.  Nor  do 
they  speak  against  images  in  order  to  further  devotion, 
but    plainly   with    a   malicious   mind   to    diminish   and 

1  English  Works,  p.  116. 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING  291 

quench  men's  devotions.  For  they  see  clearly  that  no 
one  who  loves  another  does  not  delight  in  his  image 
or  in  anything  of  his.  And  these  heretics  who  are 
so  sore  against  the  images  of  God  and  His  holy  saints, 
would  be  right  angry  with  him  that  would  dishonestly 
handle  an  image  made  in  remembrance  of  one  of 
themselves,  whilst  the  wretches  forbear  not  to  handle 
villainously,  and  in  despite  cast  dirt  upon  the  holy 
crucifix,  an  image  made  in  remembrance  of  our 
Saviour  Himself,  and  not  only  of  His  most  blessed 
Person,  but  also  of  His  most  bitter  Passion."  ^ 

Later  on,  in  the  same  tract,  rejecting  the  notion 
that  people  did  not  fully  understand  that  the  image 
was  intended  merely  to  recall  the  memory  of  the  person 
whose  image  it  was,  and  was  not  itself  in  any  sense  the 
thing  or  person,  More  says :  "  The  flock  of  Christ  is 
not  so  foolish  as  those  heretics  would  make  them  to 
be.  For  whereas  there  is  no  dog  so  mad  that  he  does 
not  know  a  real  coney  {i.e.  rabbit)  from  a  coney  carved 
and  painted,  (yet  they  would  have  it  supposed  that) 
Christian  people  that  have  reason  in  their  heads,  and 
therefore  the  light  of  faith  in  their  souls,  would  think 
that  the  image  of  our  Lady  were  our  Lady  herself. 
Nay,  they  be  not  so  mad,  I  trust,  but  that  they  do 
reverence  to  the  image  for  the  honour  of  the  person 
whom  it  represents,  as  every  man  delights  in  the  image 
and  remembrance  of  his  friend.  And  although  every 
good  Christian  man  has  a  remembrance  of  Christ's 
passion  in  his  mind,  and  conceives  by  devout  medita- 
tion a  form  and  fashion  thereof  in  his  heart,  yet  there 
is  no  man  I  ween  so  good  nor  so  learned,  nor  so  well 
.accustomed   to    meditation,   but   that   he    finds   himself 

1  English  Works,  p.  117, 


292      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

more  moved  to  pity  and  compassion  by  beholding  the 
holy  crucifix  than  when  he  lacks  it."  ^ 

In  his  work  against  Tyndale,  More  again  takes  up 
this  subject  in  reference  to  the  way  in  which  the 
former  in  his  new  translation  of  the  Bible  had  substi- 
tuted the  word  idol  for  image,  as  if  they  were  practically 
identical  in  meaning.  "  Good  folk  who  worship  images 
of  Christ  and  His  saints,  thereby  worship  Christ  and 
His  saints,  whom  these  images  represent."  Just  as 
pagan  worshippers  of  idols  did  evil  in  worshipping 
them,  "  because  in  them  they  worshipped  devils  (whom 
they  called  gods  and  whom  those  idols  represented),  so 
Christian  men  do  well  in  worshipping  images,  because 
in  them  they  worship  Christ  and  His  holy  saints."^ 

Roger  Edgworth,  the  preacher,  describes  at  Bristol 
in  Queen  Mary's  reign  how  the  Reforming  party  en- 
deavoured to  confuse  the  minds  of  the  common  people 
as  to  the  meaning  of  the  word  idol.  "  I  would,"  he 
says,  "  that  you  should  not  ignorantly  confound  and 
abuse  those  terms  '  idol '  and  '  image,'  taking  an  image 
for  an  idol  and  an  idol  for  an  image,  as  I  have  heard 
many  do  in  this  city,  as  well  fathers  and  mothers  (who 
should  be  wise)  as  their  babies  and  children  who  have 
learned  foolishness  from  their  parents.  Now,  at  the 
dissolution  of  the  monasteries  and  friars'  houses  many 
images  have  been  carried  abroad  and  given  to  children 
to  play  with,  and  when  the  children  have  them  in 
their  hands,  dancing  them  in  their  childish  manner,  the 
father  or  mother  comes  and  says,  '  What  nase,  what 
have  you  there  ? '  The  child  answers  (as  she  is  taught), 
'  I  have  here  my  idol.'  Then  the  father  laughs  and 
makes    a    gay   game    at    it.     So    says    the    mother    to- 

1  Ibid.,  p.  121.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  420. 


TEACHING  AND   PREACHING  293 

another,  '  Jugge  or  Tommy,  where  did  you  get  that 
pretty  idol  ? '  '  John,  our  parish  clerk  gave  it  to  me,' 
says  the  child,  and  for  that  the  clerk  must  have  thanks 
and  shall  not  lack  good  cheer.  But  if  the  folly  were 
only  in  the  insolent  youth,  and  in  the  fond  unlearned 
fathers  and  mothers,  it  might  soon  be  redressed."  The 
fact  is,  he  proceeds  to  explain,  that  the  new  preachers 
have  been  doing  all  in  their  power  to  obscure  the 
hitherto  well-recognised  difference  in  meaning  between 
an  image  and  an  idol.  He  begs  his  hearers  to  try  and 
keep  the  difference  in  meaning  between  an  image  and 
an  idol  clearly  before  their  minds.  "  An  image  is  a 
similitude  of  a  natural  thing  that  has  been,  is,  or  may 
be,"  he  tells  them.  "  An  idol  is  a  similitude  of  what 
never  was  or  may  be.  Therefore  the  image  of  the 
crucifix  is  no  idol,  for  it  represents  and  signifies  Christ 
crucified  as  He  was  in  very  deed,  and  the  image  of  St. 
Paul  with  a  sword  in  his  hand  as  the  sign  of  his  martyr- 
dom is  no  idol,  for  the  thing  signified  by  it  was  a 
thing  indeed,  for  he  was  beheaded  with  a  sword."  ^ 

In  another  part  of  the  Dialogue  Sir  Thomas  More 
pointed  out  that  what  the  reforming  party  said  against 
devotion  to  images  and  pilgrimages  could  be  summed 
up  under  one  of  three  heads.  They  charge  the  people 
with  giving  "to  the  saints,  and  also  to  their  images, 
honour  like  in  kind  to  what  they  give  to  God  Him- 
self" ;  or  (2)  that  "they  take  the  images  for  the  things 
themselves,"  which  is  plain  idolatry  ;  or  (3)  that  the 
worship  is  conducted  in  a  "  superstitious  fashion  with 
a  desire  of  unlawful  things."  Now,  as  to  these  three 
accusations.  More  replies:  "The  first  point  is  at  once 
soon    and   shortly  answered,  for   it    is    not   true.     For 

^  Sermons,  fol.  40. 


294      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

though  men  kneel  to  saints  and  images,  and  incense 
them  also,  yet  it  is  not  true  that  they  for  this  reason 
worship  them  in  every  point  like  unto  God.  .  .  .  They 
lack  the  chief  point  (of  such  supreme  worship).  That 
is,  they  worship  God  in  the  mind  that  He  is  God,  which 
intention  in  worship  is  the  only  thing  that  maketh  it 
latria,  and  not  any  certain  gesture  or  bodily  observance." 
It  would  not  be  supreme  or  divine  worship  even  if  "we 
would  wallow  upon  the  ground  unto  Christ,  having  in 
this  a  mind  that  He  were  the  best  man  we  could  think 
of,  but  not  thinking  Him  to  be  God.  For  if  the  lowly 
manner  of  bodily  observance  makes  latria,  then  we 
were  in  grave  peril  of  idolatry  in  our  courtesy  used  to 
princes,  prelates,  and  popes,  to  whom  we  kneel  as  low 
as  to  God  Almighty,  and  kiss  some  their  hands  and 
some  our  own,  ere  ever  we  presume  to  touch  them  ; 
and  in  the  case  of  the  Pope,  his  foot  ;  and  as  for 
incensing,  the  poor  priests  in  every  choir  are  as  well 
incensed  as  the  Sacrament.  Hence  if  latria,  which  is 
the  special  honour  due  to  God,  was  contained  in  these 
things,  then  we  were  great  idolaters,  not  only  in  our 
worship  of  the  saints  and  of  their  images,  but  also  of 
men,  one  to  another  among  ourselves."  Though  indeed 
to  God  Almighty  ought  to  be  shown  as  "  humble  and 
lowly  a  bodily  reverence  as  possible,  still  this  bodily 
worship  is  not  latria,  unless  we  so  do  it  in  our  mind 
considering  and  acknowledging  Him  as  God,  and  with 
that  mind  and  intention  do  our  worship  ;  and  this,  as  I 
think,"  he  says,  "  no  Christian  man  does  to  any  image 
or  to  any  saint  either." 

"  Now,  as  touching  the  second  point — namely,  that 
people  take  the  images  for  the  saints  themselves,  I  trust 
there  is  no  man  so  mad,  or  woman  either,  that  they  do 


TEACHING  AND   PREACHING  295 

not  know  live  men  from  dead  stones,  and  a  tree  from 
flesh  and  bone.  And  when  they  prefer  our  Lady  at 
one  pilgrimage  place  before  our  Lady  at  another,  or 
one  rood  before  another,  or  make  their  invocations  and 
vows  some  to  the  one  and  some  to  the  other,  I  ween  it 
easy  to  perceive  that  they  mean  nothing  else  than  that 
our  Lord  and  our  Lady,  or  rather  our  Lord  for  our 
Lady,  shows  more  miracles  at  the  one  than  the  other. 
They  intend  in  their  pilgrimages  to  visit,  some  one 
place  and  some  another,  or  sometimes  the  place  is 
convenient  for  them,  or  their  devotion  leads  them  ; 
and  yet  (this  is)  not  for  the  place,  but  because  our 
Lord  pleases  by  manifest  miracles  to  provoke  men  to 
seek  Him,  or  His  Blessed  Mother,  or  some  Holy  Saint 
of  His,  in  these  places  more  especially  than  in  some 
others." 

"  This  thing  itself  proves  also  that  they  do  not  take 
the  images  of  our  Lady  for  herself.  For  if  they  did, 
how  could  they  possibly  in  any  wise  have  more  mind 
to  one  of  them  than  to  the  other  ?  For  they  can  have 
no  more  mind  to  our  Lady  than  to  our  Lady.  More- 
over, if  they  thought  that  the  image  at  Walsingham  was 
our  Lady  herself  then  must  they  needs  think  that  our 
Lady  herself  was  that  image.  Then,  if  in  like  manner 
they  thought  that  the  image  at  Ipswich  was  our  Lady 
herself,  and  as  they  must  then  need  think  that  our 
Lady  was  the  image  at  Ipswich,  they  must  needs  think 
that  all  these  three  things  were  one  thing.  .  .  .  And  so 
by  the  same  reason  they  must  suppose  that  the  image 
at  Ipswich  was  the  self-same  image  as  at  Walsingham. 
If  you  ask  any  one  you  take  for  the  simplest,  except 
a  natural  fool,  I  dare  hold  you  a  wager  she  will  tell 
you  '  nay '  to  this.     Besides  this,  take  the  simplest  fool 


296       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

you  can  find  and  she  will  tell  you  our  Lady  herself  is 
in  heaven.     She  will  also  call  an  image  an  image,  and 
she   will  tell  you  the   difference   between  an   image  of 
a   horse   and   a  horse  in  very  deed.     And  this  appears 
clearly  whatever  her   words  about   her  pilgrimage  are, 
caUing,   according  to  the   common  manner  of  speech, 
the   image   of  our  Lady,  our  Lady.     As  men  say,  '  Go 
to  the    King's    Head   for  wine,'   not  meaning   his   real 
head,  but  the  sign,  so  she  means  nothing  more  in  the 
image  but  our    Lady's  image,  no  matter  how  she  may 
call  it.     And  if  you  would  prove  she  neither  takes  our 
Lady  for  the  image,  nor  the  image  for  our  Lady — talk 
with  her  about  our  Lady  and  she  will  tell  you  that  our 
Lady  was  saluted  by  Gabriel  ;  that  our  Lady  fled  into 
Egypt  with  Joseph  ;  and  yet  in  the  telling  she  will  never 
say  that   '  our  Lady  of  Walsingham,'    or   *  of    Ipswich,' 
was   saluted    by  Gabriel,  or   fled   into   Egypt.      If  you 
would  ask  her  whether  it  was  '  our  Lady  of  Walsing- 
ham,' or  <  our  Lady  of  Ipswich,'  that  stood  by  the  cross 
at    Christ's    Passion,    she    will,    I    warrant    you,    make 
answer  that  it  was  neither  of  them  ;  and  if  you  further 
ask    her,    '  which   Lady   then,'   she   will   name  you  no 
image,  but    our   Lady   who    is  in  heaven.     And  this   I 
have  proved  often,  and  you  may  do  so,  too,  when  you 
will  and  shall  find  it  true,  except  it  be  in  the  case  of 
one    so   very   a    fool   that   God   will   give  her  leave  to 
believe   what    she    likes.      And    surely,    on   this   point, 
I  think  in  my  mind  that  all  those  heretics  who  make 
as  though  they  had  found  so  much  idolatry  among  the 
people  for   mistaking    (the    nature)   of   images,  do  but 
devise    the  fear,  to    have    some    cloak    to    cover  their 
heresy,   wherein    they    bark    against    the    saints    them- 
selves,   and    when     they    are    marked    they    say    they 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING     297 

only    mean    the   wrong    beliefs    that    women    have    in 
images."  ^ 

As  regards  the  third  point — namely,  that  honour 
is  sometimes  shown  to  the  saints  and  their  images 
in  "  a  superstitious  fashion  with  a  desire  of  unlawful 
things,"  More  would  be  ready  to  blame  this  as  much 
as  any  man  if  it  could  be  shown  to  be  the  case.  "  But 
I  would  not,"  he  says,  ''  blame  all  things  which  are 
declared  to  be  of  this  character  by  the  new  teachers. 
For  example,  to  pray  to  St.  Apollonia  for  the  help 
of  our  teeth  is  no  witchcraft,  considering  that  she  had 
her  teeth  pulled  out  for  Christ's  sake.  Nor  is  there  any 
superstition  in  other  suchlike  things."  Still,  where 
abuses  can  be  shown  they  ought  to  be  put  down  as 
abuses,  and  the  difference  between  a  lawful  use  and 
an  unlawful  abuse  recognised.  But  because  there  may 
be  abuses  done  on  the  Sunday,  or  in  Lent,  that  is  no 
reason  why  the  Sunday  observance,  or  the  fast  of  Lent, 
should  be  swept  away."  "  In  like  manner  it  would  not 
be  right  that  all  due  worship  of  saints  and  reverence  of 
relics,  and  honour  of  saints'  images,  by  which  good 
and  devout  folk  get  much  merit,  should  be  abolished 
and  put  down  because  people  abuse "  these  things. 
''  Now,  as  touching  the  evil  petitions,"  he  continues, 
*'  though  they  who  make  them  were,  as  I  trust  they 
are  not,  a  great  number,  they  are  not  yet  so  many 
that  ask  evil  petitions  of  saints  as  ask  them  of  God 
Himself.  For  whatsoever  such  people  will  ask  of  a 
good  saint,  they  will  ask  of  God  Himself,  and  where 
as  the  worst  point  it  is  said,  *  that  the  people  do  idola- 
try  in   that  they  take  the  images  for  the  saints  them- 

^  English  Works,  pp.  196-7. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  198. 


298      THE   EVE   OF  THE   REFORMATION 

selves,  or  the  rood  for  Christ  Himself, — which,  as  I 
have  said,  I  think  none  do  ;  for  some  rood  has  no 
crucifix  thereon,  and  they  do  not  believe  that  the  cross 
which  they  see  was  ever  at  Jerusalem,  or  that  it  was 
the  holy  cross  itself,  and  much  less  think  that  the 
image  that  hangs  on  it  is  the  body  of  Christ  Himself. 
And  though  some  were  so  mad  as  to  think  so,  yet  it 
is  not  '  the  people '  who  do  so.  For  a  few  doddering 
dames  do  not  make  the  people."  ^ 

It  is  hard  to  imagine  any  teaching  about  the  use 
and  abuse  of  images  clearer  than  that  which  is  con- 
tained in  the  foregoing  passages  from  Sir  Thomas 
More's  writings.  The  main  importance  of  his  testi- 
mony, however,  is  not  so  much  this  clear  statement 
of  Catholic  doctrine  on  the  nature  of  devotion  to 
images,  as  his  positive  declaration  that  there  were  not 
such  abuses,  or  superstitions,  common  among  the 
people  on  the  eve  of  the  religious  changes,  as  it  suited 
the  purpose  of  the  early  reformers  to  suggest,  and  of 
later  writers  with  sectarian  bias  to  believe. 

For  evidence  of  positive  and  distinct  teaching  on 
the  matter  of  reverence  to  be  shown  to  images,  and 
on  its  nature  and  limits,  we  cannot  do  better  than 
refer  to  that  most  popular  book  of  instruction  in  the 
fifteenth  and  early  sixteenth  centuries,  already  referred 
to,  called  Dives  et  Pauper,  a  treatise  on  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments. It  was  multiplied  from  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century  in  manuscript  copies,  and 
printed  editions  of  it  were  issued  from  the  presses  of 
Pynson,  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  and  Thomas  Berthelet. 
These  editions  published  by  our  early  printers  are 
sufficient  to  attest  its  popularity,  and  the   importance 

^  Ibid.,  p.  199. 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING     299 

attached  to  it  as  a  book  of  instruction  by  the  eccle- 
siastical authorities  on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation. 

This  is  how  the  teacher  lays  down  the  general 
principle  of  loving  God  :  "  The  first  precept  of  charity  is 
this  :  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  God  with  all  thy  heart, 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  with  all  thy 
might.  When  He  saith  thou  shalt  love  thy  God  with  all 
thy  heart,  He  excludeth  all  manner  of  idolatry  that  is 
forbidden  by  the  first  commandment  ;  that  is,  that  man 
set  not  his  heart,  nor  his  faith,  nor  his  trust  in  any 
creature  more  than  in  God,  or  against  God's  worship. 
.  .  .  God  orders  that  thou  shouldst  love  Him  with  all 
thy  heart,  that  is  to  say,  with  all  thy  faith,  in  such  a 
way  that  thou  set  all  thy  faith  and  trust  in  Him  before 
all  others,  as  in  Him  that  is  Almighty  and  can  best 
help  thee  in  thy  need."  Later  on,  under  the  same 
heading,  we  are  taught  that :  "  by  this  commandment 
we  are  bound  to  worship  God,  who  is  the  Father  of  all 
things,  who  is  called  the  Father  of  mercies  and  God 
of  all  comfort.  He  is  our  Father,  for  He  made  us  of 
nought :  He  bought  us  with  His  blood,  He  findeth  us 
all  that  we  need,  and  much  more,  He  feedeth  us.  He 
is  our  Father  by  grace,  for  by  His  grace  He  hath 
made  us  heirs  of  heavenly  bliss.  Was  there  ever  a 
father  so  tender  of  his  child  as  God  is  tender  of  us  ? 
He  is  to  us  both  father  and  mother,  and  therefore  we 
are  bound  to  love  Him  and  worship  Him  above  all 
things."  ^ 

Under  the  first  commandment  the  whole  question 
as  to  images,  and  the  nature  of  the  reverence  to  be 
paid  to  them,  is  carefully  considered,  and  the  matter 
put  so  plainly,  that  there  is  no  room  for  doubt  as  to 

1  Ed.  W,  de  Worde,  1496. 


300      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

the  nature  of  the  instructions  given  to  the  people  in 
pre-Reformation  days.  Images,  the  teacher  explains, 
are  ordered  for  three  great  ends,  namely :  "  To  stir 
men's  minds  to  meditate  upon  the  Incarnation  of  Christ 
and  upon  His  life  and  passion,  and  upon  the  lives  of 
the  saints  ; "  secondly,  to  move  the  heart  to  devotion 
and  love,  "  for  oft  man  is  stirred  more  by  sight  than 
by  hearing  or  reading  ;  "  thirdly,  they  "  are  intended 
to  be  a  token  and  a  book  to  the  ignorant  people,  that 
they  may  read  in  images  and  painting  as  clerks  read 
in  books." 

And  in  reply  to  a  question  from  Dives,  who  pre- 
tended to  think  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  read  a 
lesson  from  any  painting.  Pauper  explains  his  meaning 
in  calling  them  "books  to  the  unlearned."  "When 
thou  seest  the  image  of  the  crucifix,"  he  says,  "  think 
of  Him  that  died  on  the  cross  for  thy  sins  and  thy 
sake,  and  thank  Him  for  His  endless  charity  that  He 
would  suffer  so  much  for  thee.  See  in  images  how 
His  head  was  crowned  with  a  garland  of  thorns  till 
the  blood  burst  out  on  every  side,  to  destroy  the  great 
sin  of  pride  which  is  most  manifested  in  the  heads  of 
men  and  women.  Behold,  and  make  an  end  to  thy 
pride.  See  in  the  image  how  His  arms  were  spread 
abroad  and  drawn  up  on  the  tree  till  the  veins  and 
sinews  cracked,  and  how  His  hands  were  nailed  to 
the  cross,  and  streamed  with  blood,  to  destroy  the  sin 
that  Adam  and  Eve  did  with  their  hands  when  they 
took  the  apple  against  God's  prohibition.  Also  He 
suffered  to  wash  away  the  sin  of  the  wicked  deeds  and 
wicked  works  done  by  the  hands  of  men  and  women. 
Behold,  and  make  an  end  of  thy  wicked  works.  See 
how  His  side  was  opened  and  His  heart  cloven  in  two 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING     301 

by  the  sharp  spear,  and  how  it  shed  blood  and  water, 
to  show  that  if  He  had  had  more  blood  in  His  body, 
more  He  would  have  given  for  men's  love.  He  shed 
His  blood  to  ransom  our  souls,  and  water  to  wash 
us  from  our  sins." 

But  whilst  the  instructor  teaches  the  way  in  which 
the  crucifix  may  be  a  book  full  of  deep  meaning  to 
the  unlearned,  he  is  most  careful  to  see  that  the  true 
signification  of  the  image  is  not  misunderstood.  In 
language  which  for  clearness  of  expression  and  sim- 
plicity of  illustration  cannot  be  excelled,  he  warns  Dives 
not  to  mistake  the  real  nature  of  the  reverence  paid  to  the 
symbol  of  our  redemption.  "  In  this  manner,"  he  says, 
"  read  thy  book  and  fall  down  to  the  ground  and  thank 
thy  God  who  would  do  so  much  for  thee.  Worship 
Him  above  all  things — not  the  stock,  nor  the  stone,  nor 
the  wood,  but  Him  who  died  on  the  tree  of  the  cross 
for  thy  sins  and  thy  sake.  Thou  shalt  kneel  if  thou 
wilt  before  the  image,  but  not  to  the  image.  Thou 
shalt  do  thy  worship  before  the  image,  before  the 
thing,  not  to  the  thing ;  offer  thy  prayer  before  the 
thing,  not  to  the  thing,  for  it  seeth  thee  not,  heareth 
thee  not,  understandeth  thee  not :  make  thy  offering,  if 
thou  wilt,  before  the  thing,  but  not  to  the  thing :  make 
thy  pilgrimage  not  to  the  thing,  nor  for  the  thing,  for 
it  may  not  help  thee,  but  to  Him  and  for  Him  the 
thing  represents.  For  if  thou  do  it  for  the  thing,  or  to 
the  thing,  thou  doest  idolatry." 

This  plain  teaching  as  to  the  only  meaning  of 
reverence  paid  to  images,  namely,  that  it  is  relative 
and  intended  for  that  which  the  image  represents,  our 
author  enforces  by  several  examples.  Just  as  a  priest 
when    saying    mass   with    a    book    before    him,    bends 


302      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

down,  holds  up  his  hands,  kneels,  and  performs  other 
external  signs  of  worship,  not  to  the  book,  but  to  God, 
"so  should  the  unlettered  man  use  his  book,  that  is 
images  and  paintings,  not  worshipping  the  thing,  but 
God  in  heaven  and  the  saints  in  their  degree.  All  the 
worship  which  he  doth  before  the  thing,  he  doth,  not 
to  the  thing,  but  to  Him  the  thing  represents." 

The  image  of  the  crucified  Saviour  on  the  altar  is 
specially  intended,  our  author  says,  to  remind  all  that 
"  Mass  singing  is  a  special  mind-making  of  Christ's 
passion."  For  this  reason,  in  the  presence  of  the 
crucifix,  the  priest  says  "his  mass,  and  offers  up  the 
highest  prayer  that  Holy  Church  can  devise  for  the 
salvation  of  the  quick  and  the  dead.  He  holds  up  his 
hands,  he  bows  down,  he  kneels,  and  all  the  worship 
he  can  do,  he  does — more  than  all,  he  offers  up  the 
highest  sacrifice  and  the  best  offering  that  any  heart 
can  devise — that  is  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  God  of 
heaven,  under  the  form  of  bread  and  wine.  All  this 
worship  the  priest  doth  at  mass  before  the  thing — the 
crucifix ;  and  I  hope  there  is  no  man  nor  woman  so 
ignorant  that  he  will  say  that  the  priest  singeth  his 
mass,  or  maketh  his  prayer,  or  offers  up  the  Son  of 
God,  Christ  Himself,  to  the  thing.  ...  In  the  same 
way,  unlettered  men  should  worship  before  the  thing, 
making  prayer  before  the  thing,  and  not  to  the  thing." 

One  of  the  special  practices  of  the  mediaeval  church 
to  which  the  English  reformers  objected,  and  to  which 
they  gave  the  epithet  "  superstitious,"  was  the  honour 
shown  to  the  cross  on  Good  Friday,  generally  known 
as  "  the  creeping  to  the  cross."  The  advocates  of 
change  in  insisting  upon  this  time-honoured  ceremony 
being   swept    away,   claimed  that   in    permitting   it   the 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING     303 

Church  had  given  occasion  to  wrong  ideas  of  worship 
in  the  minds  of  the  common  people,  and  that  the 
reverence  shown  to  the  symbol  of  our  redemption  on 
that  occasion  amounted  practically  to  idolatry.  In 
view  of  such  assertions,  it  is  not  without  interest  to 
see  how  Pauper  in  this  book  of  simple  instructions 
treats  this  matter.  "  On  Good  Friday  especially,"  says 
Dives,  "  men  creep  to  the  cross  and  worship  the  cross." 
*'  That  is  so,"  replies  the  instructor,  "  but  not  in  the 
way  thou  meanest.  The  cross  that  we  creep  to  and 
worship  so  highly  at  that  time  is  Christ  Himself,  who 
died  on  the  cross  on  that  day  for  our  sin  and  our 
sake.  ...  He  is  that  cross,  as  all  doctors  say,  to 
whom  we  pray  and  say,  '  Ave  crux,  spes  unica,'  '  Hail, 
thou  cross,  our  only  hope.' "  But  rejoins  Dives, 
"  On  Palm  Sunday,  at  the  procession  the  priest  draweth 
up  the  veil  before  the  rood  and  falleth  down  to  the 
ground  with  all  the  people,  saying  thrice  thus,  'Ave 
Rex  noster,'  '  Hail,  be  Thou  our  King.'  In  this  he  wor- 
ships the  thing  as  King  !  Absit !  "  "  God  forbid  !  " 
replies  Pauper,  "  he  speaks  not  to  the  image  that  the 
carpenter  hath  made  and  the  painter  painted,  unless 
the  priest  be  a  fool,  for  the  stock  and  stone  was  never 
king.  He  speaketh  to  Him  that  died  on  the  cross 
for  us  all — to  Him  that  is  King  of  all  things  .  .  .  For 
this  reason  are  crosses  placed  by  the  wayside,  to  remind 
folk  to  think  of  Him  who  died  on  the  cross,  and  to 
worship  Him  above  all  things.  And  for  this  same 
reason  is  the  cross  borne  before  a  procession,  that 
all  who  follow  after  it  or  meet  it  should  worship  Him 
who  died  upon  a  cross  as  their  King,  their  Head,  their 
Lord  and  their  Leader  to  Heaven." 

Equally  clear  is  the  author  of  Dives  et  Pauper  upon 


304      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

the  distinction  between  the  worship  to  be  paid  to  God 
and  the  honour  it  is  lawful  to   give  to  His  saints.      It 
is,  of  course,  frequently  asserted  that  the  English  pre- 
Reformation  church  did  not  recognise,  or  at   least  did 
not    inculcate,    this    necessary    difference,    and    conse- 
quently  tolerated,    even    if    it    did    not    suggest,   gross 
errors    in    this    matter.     No    one   who    has    examined 
the  manuals  of  instruction  which  were  in   use  on  the 
eve    of    the    Reformation    can    possibly    maintain     an 
opinion    so    opposed   to    the    only   evidence    available. 
In  particular,  the  real  distinction  between  the  supreme 
worship  due  to  God  alone,  and  the  honour,  however 
great,  to   be  paid  to   His  creatures  is  drawn  out  with 
great  care  and  exactness  in  regard  to  the  devotion  paid 
to  our  Lord's  Blessed  Mother.     Thus,  after  most  care- 
fully explaining  that  there  are  two  modes  of  ''  service 
and  worship  "  which  differ  not  merely  in   degree,  but 
in    kind    and    nature,    and   which   were   then,    as    now, 
known    under    the    terms   latria    and  dulia,  our  author 
proceeds,    "Latria  is   a    protestation    and   acknowledg- 
ment   of    the   high    majesty    of   God  ;   the    recognition 
that    He     is    sovereign    goodness,    sovereign     wisdom, 
sovereign    might,    sovereign    truth,    sovereign    justice  ; 
that    He  is  the   Creator   and   Saviour    of   all    creatures 
and  the  end  of  all  things  ;  that  all  we  have  we  have 
of    Him,    and   that   without    Him    we   have   absolutely 
nothing ;    and  that   without  Him  we  can   neither  have 
nor  do  anything,  neither  we  nor  any  other   creature. 
This  acknowledgment  and  protestation  is  made  in  three 
ways  :  by  the  heart,  and  by  word,  and  by  deed.     We 
make  it  by  the  heart  when  we  love  Him  as  sovereign 
goodness  ;  when    we    love    Him    as    sovereign    wisdom 
and    truth,    that    may    not    deceive    nor    be    deceived ; 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING  305 

when  we  hope  in  Him  and  trust  Him  as  sovereign 
might  that  can  best  help  us  in  need  ;  as  sovereign 
greatness  and  Lord,  who  may  best  yield  us  our 
deserts  ;  and  as  sovereign  Saviour,  most  merciful  and 
most  ready  to  forgive  us  our  misdeeds.  .  .  .  Also  the 
acknowledgment  is  done  in  the  prayer  and  praise  of 
our  mouths.  .  .  .  For  we  must  pray  to  Him  and 
praise  Him  as  sovereign  might,  sovereign  wisdom, 
sovereign  goodness,  sovereign  truth  ;  as  all- just  and 
merciful  as  the  Maker  and  Saviour  of  all  things,  &c. 

"  And  in  this  manner  we  are  not  to  pray  to  or 
praise  any  creature.  Therefore,  they  who  make  their 
prayers  and  their  praises  before  images,  and  say  their 
Paternoster  and  their  Ave  Maria  and  other  prayers 
and  praises  commonly  used  by  holy  Church,  or  any 
such,  if  they  do  it  to  the  image,  and  speak  to  the 
image,  they  do  open  idolatry.  Also  they  are  not 
excused  even  if  they  understand  not  what  they  say, 
for  their  lights,  and  their  other  wits,  and  their  inner 
wit  also,  showeth  them  well  that  there  ought  that  no 
such  prayer,  praise,  or  worship  be  offered  to  such  images, 
for  they  can  neither  hear  them,  nor  see  them,  nor  help 
them  in  their  needs." 

Equally  definite  and  explicit  is  another  writer,  just 
on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation.  William  Bond,  the 
brother  of  Sion,  in  1531  published  his  large  volume 
of  instructions  called  The  Pilgrymage  of  Perfeccyon,  to 
which  his  contemporary,  Richard  Whitford,  refers  his 
readers  for  the  fullest  teaching  on  sundry  points  of 
faith  and  practice.  In  setting  forth  the  distinction 
between  an  image  and  an  idol  this  authority  says, 
"  Many  nowadays  take  the  Scripture  wrongly,  and 
thereby    fall     into    heresy    as    Wycliffe    did    with     his 

u 


3o6      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

followers,  and  now  this  abominable  heretic,  Luther, 
with  his  adherents.  .  .  .  And  (as  I  suppose)  the  cause 
of  their  error  is  some  of  these  following  : — First,  that 
they  put  no  difference  between  an  idol  and  an  image  ; 
secondly,  that  they  put  no  difference  between  the  ser- 
vice or  high  adoration  due  to  God,  called  in  the  Greek 
tongue  latria,  and  the  lower  veneration  or  worship  ex- 
hibited and  done  to  the  saints  of  God,  called  in  Greek 
didia.  .  .  .  The  veneration  or  worship  that  is  done  to 
the  images  (as  Damascene,  Basil,  and  St.  Thomas  say) 
rest  not  in  them,  but  redound  unto  the  thing  that  is 
represented  by  such  images  :  as  for  example,  the  great 
ambassador  or  messenger  of  a  king  shall  have  the  same 
reverence  that  the  king's  own  person  should  have  if 
he  were  present.  This  honour  is  not  done  to  this  man 
for  himself,  or  for  his  own  person,  but  for  the  king's 
person  in  whose  name  he  cometh,  and  all  such  honour 
and  reverence  so  done  redoundeth  to  the  king  and 
resteth  in  him.  ...  So  it  is  in  the  veneration  or  wor- 
shipping of  the  images  of  Christ  and  His  saints.  The 
honour  rests  not  in  the  image,  nor  in  the  stock,  nor 
in  the  stone,  but  in  the  thing  that  is  represented  there- 
by." According  to  St.  Thomas,  he  says  the  images 
in  churches  are  intended  to  "  be  as  books  to  the  rude 
and  unlearned  people,"  and  to  "  stir  simple  souls  to 
devotion."  ^ 

Bond  then  draws  out  most  carefully  the  distinction 
which  the  Church  teaches  as  to  the  kinds  of  honour 
to  be  given  to  the  saints.  ''  Our  lights,  oblations,  or 
Paternosters  and  creeds  that  we  say  before  images  of 
saints,"   he  says,    "  are    as   praisings    of    God,   for   His 

1  William  Bond,  The  Pilgrymage  of  Perfeccyon,  Wynkyn  de  Worde,  1531, 
fol.  192. 


TEACHING  AND   PREACHING  307 

graces  wrought  in  His  saints,  by  whose  merits  we 
trust  that  our  petitions  shall  be  the  sooner  obtained 
of  God.  .  .  .  We  pray  to  them,  not  as  to  the  granters 
of  our  petitions,  but  as  means  whereby  we  may  the 
sooner  obtain  the  same."  ^ 

Speaking  specially  of  the  reverence  shown  to  the 
crucifix,  our  author  uses  the  teaching  of  St.  Thomas 
to  explain  the  exact  meaning  of  this  honour.  "  The 
Church  in  Lent,  in  the  Passion  time,"  he  continues, 
''  worships  it,  singing,  '  O  crux  avcj  spes  unica,'  '  Hail, 
holy  cross,  our  only  hope.'  That  is  to  be  understood 
as  '  Hail,  blessed  Lord  crucified.  Who  art  our  only 
hope  ' — for  all  is  one  worship  and  act.  Christ,  our 
Maker  and  Redeemer,  God  and  man  in  one  person, 
is  of  duty  worshipped  with  the  high  adoration  only  due 
to  God,  called  latria.  His  image  also,  or  his  similitude, 
called  the  crucifix,  is  to  be  worshipped,  just  as  the 
Blessed  Sacrament  is  adored  with  the  worship  of 
latria."  ^ 

To  this  testimony  may  be  added  that  of  another 
passage  from  Sir  Thomas  More.  He  was  engaged  in 
refuting  the  accusation  made  by  Tyndale  against  the 
religious  practices  of  pre-Reformation  days,  to  which 
charges,  unfortunately,  people  have  given  too  much 
credence  in  later  times.  "  Now  of  prayer,  Tyndale 
says,"  writes  More,  "  that  we  think  no  man  may  pray 
but  at  church,  and  that  {i.e.  the  praying  before  a  cruci- 
fix or  image)  is  nothing  but  the  saying  of  a  Paternoster 
to  a  post.  (Further)  that  the  observances  and  cere- 
monies of  the  Church  are  vain  things  of  our  own 
imagination,  neither  needful  to  the  taming  of  the  flesh, 
nor  profitable  to  our  neighbour,  nor  to  the  honour  of 
^  Ibid.,  fol.  196.  2  jbid^ 


3o8      THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

God.  These  lies  come  in  by  lumps  ;  lo  !  I  dare  say 
that  he  never  heard  in  his  life  men  nor  women  say 
that  a  man  might  pray  only  in  church.  Just  as  true 
is  it  also  that  men  say  their  Paternosters  to  the  post,  by 
which  name  it  pleases  him  of  his  reverent  Christian 
mind  to  call  the  images  of  holy  saints  and  our  Blessed 
Lady,  and  the  figure  of  Christ's  cross,  the  book  of  His 
bitter  passion.  Though  we  reverence  these  in  honour 
of  the  things  they  represent,  and  in  remembrance  of 
Christ  do  creep  to  the  cross  and  kiss  it,  and  say  Pater- 
noster at  it,  yet  we  say  not  our  Paternoster  to  it,  but  to 
God  ;  and  that  Tyndale  knows  full  well,  but  he  likes  to 
rail."  ^ 

Finally  a  passage  on  the  subject  of  pre-Reformation 
devotion  to  the  saints  and  angels,  from  the  tract  Dives  et 
Pauper,  may  fitly  close  this  subject.  "  First,"  says  the 
author,  "  worship  ye  our  Lady,  mother  and  maid,  above 
all,  next  after  God,  and  then  other  saints  both  men  and 
women,  and  then  the  holy  angels,  as  God  giveth  the 
grace.  Worship  ye  them  not  as  God,  but  as  our 
tutors,  defenders  and  keepers,  as  our  leaders  and 
governors  under  God,  as  the  means  between  us  and 
God,  who  is  the  Father  of  all  and  most  Sovereign 
Judge,  to  appease  Him,  and  to  pray  for  us,  and  to 
obtain  us  grace  to  do  well,  and  for  forgiveness  of 
our  misdeeds.  .  .  .  And,  dear  friend,  pray  ye  heartily 
to  your  angel,  as  to  him  that  is  nearest  to  you  and 
hath  most  care  of  you,  and  is,  under  God,  most  busy 
to  save  you.  And  follow  his  governance  and  trust 
in  him  in  all  goodness,  and  with  reverence  and  purity 
pray  ye  to  him  faithfully,  make  your  plaints  to  him, 
and  speak  to  him  homely  to  be  your  helper,  since   he 

^  English  IVorks,  p.  408. 


TEACHING  AND   PREACHING  309 

is  your  tutor  and  keeper  assigned  to  you  by  God.     Say 
oft  that  holy  prayer,  Angele  qui  mens  est,  &c." 

This  prayer  to  the  Guardian  Angel,  so  highly  com- 
mended, was  well  known  to  pre-Reformation  Catholics. 
Generations  of  English  mothers  taught  it  to  their 
children  ;  it  is  found  frequently  recommended  in  the 
sermons  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  confessors  are 
charged  to  advise  their  penitents  to  learn  and  make 
use  of  it.  For  the  benefit  of  those  of  my  readers  who 
may  not  know  the  prayer,  I  here  give  it  in  an  English 
form,  from  a  Latin  version  in  the  tract  Dcxtra  Pars 
Oculiy  which  was  intended  to  assist  confessors  in  the 
discharge  of  their  sacred  ministry — 

"  O  angel  who  my  guardian  art, 
Through  God's  paternal  love, 
Defend,  and  shield,  and  rule  the  charge 
Assigned  thee  from  above. 

From  vice's  stain  preserve  my  soul, 

O  gentle  angel  bright, 
In  all  my  life  be  thou  my  stay, 

To  all  my  steps  the  light." 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  here  to  do  more  than 
refer  to  the  books  of  instruction,  and  those  intended  to 
furnish  the  priests  on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation  with 
material  for  the  familiar  teaching  they  were  bound  to 
give  their  people.  Such  works  as  Walter  Pagula's  Pars 
Ocnli  Saccrdotisj  and  the  Pupilla  Octili  of  John  de  Burgo, 
both  fourteenth-century  productions,  were  in  general 
use  during  the  fifteenth  century  among  the  clergy. 
The  frequent  mention  of  these  works  in  the  inventories 
and  wills  of  the  period  shows  that  they  were  in  great 
demand,  and  were  circulated  from  hand  to  hand,  whilst 
an  edition  of  the  latter,  printed  in  15 10  by  Wolffgang, 


3IO       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

at  the  expense  of  an  English  merchant,  Wilham  Bret- 
ton,  attests  its  continued  popularity.  In  a  letter  from 
the  editor,  Augustine  Aggeus,  to  Bretton,  printed  on 
the  back  of  the  title-page,  it  is  said  that  the  Pupilla  was 
printed  solely  with  the  desire  that  the  rites  and  sacra- 
ments of  the  church  might  be  better  understood  and 
appreciated,  and  to  secure  "  that  nowhere  in  the  Eng- 
lish Church  "  should  there  be  any  excuse  of  ignorance 
on  those  matters.  -^ 

The  contents  of  the  first-named  tract,  the  Pars 
Oculi  Sacerdotis,  show  how  very  useful  a  manual  it  must 
have  been  to  assist  the  clergy  in  their  ministrations.  It 
consists  of  three  parts :  the  first  portion  forms  what 
would  now  be  called  the  praxis  confessarii,  a  manual  for 
instructing  priests  in  the  science  of  dealing  with  souls, 
and  giving  examples  of  the  kind  of  questions  that  should 
be  asked  of  various  people,  for  example,  of  religious, 
secular  priests,  merchants,  soldiers,  and  the  like.  This 
is  followed  by  a  detailed  examination  of  conscience, 
and  pious  practices  are  suggested  for  the  priest  to 
recommend  for  the  use  of  the  faithful.  For  example, 
in  order  that  the  lives  of  lay  people  might  be  associated 
in  some  way  with  the  public  prayer  of  the  church,  the 
Divine  office,  the  priest  is  advised  to  get  his  penitents 
to  make  use  of  the  Pater  and  Creed,  seven  times  a 
day,  to  correspond  with  the  canonical  hours.  Those 
having  the  cure  of  souls  are  reminded  that  it  is  their 

^  The  full  title  of  this  book  is  :  Pupilla  oculi  ovmibus  preshyteris  precipue 
Anglicanis  necessaria.  It  is  clear  from  the  letter  that  W.  Bretton  had  already 
had  other  works  printed  in  the  same  way,  and  it  is  known  that  amongst  those 
works  were  copies  of  Lynwode's  Provinciale  (1505),  Psalterium  el  Hyimii 
(1506),  Hofcv,  &c.  (1506),  Speailum  Spiritualitim,  and  Hampole,  De  Emeu- 
datione  VitcB  (1510),  (cf.  Afues,  Ed.  Herbert,  iii.  p.  1 6).  Pepwell  the  London 
publisher,  at  "the  sign  of  the  Holy  Trinity,"  was  the  same  who  published  many 
books  printed  abroad,  and  had  dealings  with  Bishops  Stokesley  and  Tunstall. 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING     311 

duty  to  see  that  all  at  least  know  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
the  Creed,  and  the  Hail  Mary  by  heart,  and  they  are 
urged  to  do  all  in  their  power  to  inculcate  devotions  to 
our  Lady,  Patron  Saints,  and  the  Guardian  Angels. 

The  second  part  of  the  Dcxtra  Pars  Oculi  deals 
minutely  and  carefully  with  the  instructions  which  a 
priest  should  give  his  people  in  their  religion,  and  this 
includes  not  only  points  of  necessary  belief  and  Chris- 
tian practice,  but  such  matters  as  the  proper  decorum 
and  behaviour  in  Church,  and  the  cemetery,  &c.  The 
materials  for  these  familiar  instructions  are  arranged 
under  thirty-one  headings,  and  following  on  these  are 
the  explanations  of  Christian  faith  and  practice  to  be 
made  in  the  simple  sermons  the  clergy  were  bound  to 
give  to  their  people  quarterly.  The  third  part,  called 
the  Sinistra  Pars  Oculi,  is  an  equally  careful  treatise 
on  the  sacraments.  The  instructions  on  the  Blessed 
Eucharist  are  excellent,  and  in  the  course  of  them  many 
matters  of  English  religious  practice  are  touched  upon 
and  the  ceremonies  of  the  Mass  are  fully  explained.^ 

1  For  further  information  upon  popular  religious  instruction  in  England, 
see  an  essay  upon  the  teaching  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  in  my 
The  old  English  Bible,  and  other  Essays.  The  Rev.  J.  Fisher,  in  his  tract 
on  The  Private  Devotions  of  the  Welsh  (1898),  speaking  of  the  vernacular 
prayer-books,  says,  "they  continued  to  be  published  down  to  the  end  of 
Henry's  reign,  and,  in  a  modified  form,  even  at  a  later  date.  Besides  these 
prymers  and  the  oral  instruction  in  the  principal  formulae  of  the  Church,  the 
scriptorium  of  the  monastery  was  not  behind  in  supplying,  especially  the 
poor,  with  horn-books,  on  which  were,  as  a  rule,  written  in  the  vulgar  tongue 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed,  and  the  Hail  Mary."  In  1546  appeared  a 
prymer  in  Welsh  in  which,  amongst  other  things,  the  seven  capital  or  deadly 
sins  and  their  opposite  virtues  are  given  and  analysed.  This  book,  conse- 
quently, besides  being  a  prayer-book  afforded  popular  instruction  to  the  people 
using  it.  The  prymers  in  Welsh,  we  are  told,  were  usually  called  "  Matins' 
Books,"  and  continued  to  be  published  long  after  the  change  of  religion.  A 
copy  published  in  1618  is  called  the  fifth  edition,  and  copies  of  it  are  recorded 
under  the  years  1633  and  1783.  "It  is  rather  a  curious  fact,"  writes  Mr. 
Fisher,  "that  nearly  all  the  Welsh  manuals  of  devotion  and  instruction,  of 


312       THE   EVE   OF  THE   REFORMATION 

It  is  obvious  that  much  of  the  real  rehgious  instruc- 
tion in  pre-Reformation  days,  as  indeed  in  all  ages,  had 
to  be  given  at  home  by  parents  to  their  children.  The 
daily  practices  by  which  the  home  life  is  regulated  and 
sanctified  are  more  efficacious  in  the  formation  of  early 
habits  of  solid  piety  and  the  fear  of  God  in  the  young 
than  any  religious  instructions  given  at  school  or  at 
Church.  This  was  fully  understood  and  insisted  upon 
in  pre-Reformation  books  of  instruction.  Such,  for 
example,  is  the  very  purpose  of  Richard  Whitford's 
book,  called  A  zverke  for  Housholders,  or  for  them  that 
have  the  guyding  or  governance  of  any  company,  printed  by 
Wynkyn  de  Worde  in  1534,  and  again  by  Robert 
Redman  in  1537.  After  reminding  his  readers  that 
life  is  short,  and  that  it  is  impossible  for  any  man  to 
know  when  he  shall  be  called  upon  to  give  an  account 

any  size,  published  in  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth  and  the  first  half  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  were  the  productions  of  Welsh  Roman  Catholics, 
and  published  on  the  Continent.  In  Dr.  Gruffydd  Roberts's  Welsh  Grammar, 
published  at  Milan  in  1567,  will  be  found  poetical  versions  of  the  Apostles' 
Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Hail  Mary,  the  Ten  Commandments  and  the 
Seven  Sacraments.  This  work  was  followed  by  the  Athravaeth  Gristnogavl, 
a  short  catechism  of  religious  doctrine,  translated  or  compiled  by  Morys 
Clynog,  the  first  Rector  of  the  English  College  in  Rome.  It  was  published 
at  Milan  in  1568,  and  contains  the  Creed,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Hail  Mary, 
the  Ten  Commandments,  &c.,  in  Welsh,  with  expositions." 

The  above,  with  the  prayer-books  of  1567,  1586,  1599,  were  all  the  works 
of  religious  instruction  and  devotion  (private  and  public)  that  appeared  in 
Welsh  down  to  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century.  I  might  add  that  there  is 
in  the  Earl  of  Macclesfield's  collection  a  large  folio  volume  of  Miscellanea 
(Shirburn  MS.  113,  D.  30),  written  between  1540  and  1560,  which  contains 
a  prymer  occupying  several  pages.  There  is  also  in  the  Swansea  Public 
Library  a  Welsh-Latin  MS.  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  written 
in  different  hands  and  in  the  South  Walian  dialect,  which  forms  a  manual  of 
Roman  Catholic  devotion,  containing  in  Welsh  devotions  for  Mass,  the  usual 
meditations  and  prayers  for  various  occasions,  instructions,  &c. 

With  the  seventeenth  century  there  is  a  good  crop  of  manuals  of  devotion 
and  instruction,  such  as  the  catechisms  of  Dr.  Rosier  Smith  (1609-1611)  and 
Father  John  Salisbury  (1618  tacito  nomine),  both  Welsh  Roman  Catholics 
(pp.  24-26). 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING     313 

of  his  stewardship,  he  turns  to  the  consideration  of  the 
Christian's  daily  life.  Begin  the  day  well,  he  says  ;  on 
first  awakening,  turn  your  thoughts  and  heart  to  God, 
"  and  then  use  by  continual  custom  to  make  a  cross  with 
your  thumb  upon  yOur  forehead  or  front,  whilst  saying 
these  words.  In  nomine  Patris ;  and  another  cross  upon 
your  mouth,  with  these  words,  Et  filii ;  and  then  a  third 
cross  upon  your  breast,  saying,  Et  spiritus  Sancti."  After 
suggesting  a  form  of  morning  and  evening  prayer,  and 
urging  a  daily  examination  of  conscience,  he  continues  : 
Some  may  object  that  all  this  is  very  well  for  religious, 
or  people  secluded  from  the  world,  "  but  we  lie  two 
or  three  sometimes  together,  and  even  in  one  chamber 
divers  beds,  and  so  many  in  company,  that  if  we  should 
use  these  things  in  the  presence  of  our  fellows  some 
would  laugh  us  to  scorn  and  mock  at  us."  But  to 
this  objection  Whitford  in  effect  replies  that  at  most  it 
would  be  a  nine  days'  wonder,  and  people  would  quickly 
be  induced  to  follow  an  example  of  such  a  good  Chris- 
tian practice  if  set  with  courage  and  firmness.^ 

Speaking  of  the  duty  of  instructing  others,  "  the 
wretch  of  Syon,"  as  Whitford  constantly  calls  himself, 
urges  those  who  can  read  to  use  their  gifts  for  the 
benefit  of  others  not  so  fortunate.  They  should  get 
their  neighbours  together  on  holidays,  he  says,  espe- 
cially the  young,  and  teach  them  the  daily  exercise,  and 
in  particular  the  "  things  they  are  bound  to  know  or 
can  say  :  that  is  the  Paternoster,  the  Ave,  and  the  Creed." 
Begin  early  to  teach  those  that  are  young,  for  "  our 
English  proverb  saith  that  the  young  cock  croweth  as 
he  doth  hear  and  learn  of  the  old."  Parents,  above 
all   things,  he  urges  to    look   well    after  their  children 

'  .•/  Werke  for  Hoiisholders.     London,  R.  Redman,  1537,  sig.  A.  8, 


314      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

and  to  take  care  of  the  company  they  keep.  Teach 
them  to  say  their  grace  at  meals.  "At  every  meal, 
dinner  or  supper,  I  have  advised,  and  do  now  counsel, 
that    one    person    should    with    loud    voice    say    thus, 

*  Paternoster,'  with  every  petition  paraphrased  and 
explained,  and  the  Hail  Mary  and  Creed  likewise. 
This  manner  of  the  Paternoster,  Ave,  and  Creed,"  he 
says,  "  I  would  have  used  and  read  from  the  book  at 
every  meal,  or  at  least  once  a  day  with  a  loud  voice 
that  all  the  persons  present  may  hear  it."  People  are 
bound  to  see  that  all  in  their  house  know  these  prayers 
and  say  them.^ 

Very  strongly  indeed  does  Whitford  in  this  volume 
write  against  belief  in  charms  and  giving  way  to  super- 
stitions. There  is  no  question  about  his  strong  con- 
demnation of  anything,  however  slight,  which  might 
savour  of  reliance  on  these  external  things,  and  as  an 
instance  of  what  he  means,  he  declares  that  the  applica- 
tion of  a  piece  of  bread,  with  a  cross  marked  upon  it, 
to  a  tooth  to  cure  its  aching,  savours  of  superstition,  as 
showing  too  great  a  reliance  on  the  material  cross.  In 
the  same  place  our  author  urges  parents  to  correct 
their  children  early  for  any  use  of  oaths  and  strong 
expressions.  "  Teach  your  children,"  he  says,  "  to 
make   their   additions  under   this   form :    '  yea,    father,' 

*  nay,  father,'  '  yea,  mother,'  '  nay,  mother,'  and  ever  to 
avoid  such  things  as  '  by  cock  and  pye,'  and  '  by  my 
hood  of  green,'  and  such  other."  - 

Finally,  to  take  but  one  more  example  of  the 
advice  given  in  this  interesting  volume  to  parents  and 
others  having  the  charge  of  the  young,  Whitford  says  : 
"Teach   your  children   to   ask  a  blessing  every  night, 

1  Ibid.,  sig.  B.  i.  ^  ibid.,  sig.  C.  8. 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING     315 

kneeling,  before  they  go  to  rest,  under  this  form : 
'  Father,  I  beseech  you  a  blessing  for  charity.'  "  If  the 
child  is  too  stubborn  to  do  this,  he  says  let  it  "  be  well 
whisked."  If  too  old  to  be  corrected  in  this  way,  let  it 
be  set  out  in  the  middle  of  the  dining-room  and  made 
to  feed  by  itself,  and  let  it  be  treated  as  one  would 
treat  one  who  did  not  deserve  to  consort  with  its 
fellows.  Also  teach  the  young  "  to  ask  a  blessing 
from  every  bishop,  abbot,  and  priest,  and  of  their  god- 
fathers and  godmothers  also."  ^ 

In  taking  a  general  survey  of  the  books  issued  by 
the  English  presses  upon  the  introduction  of  the  art  of 
printing,  the  inquirer  can  hardly  fail  to  be  struck  with 
the  number  of  religious,  or  quasi-religious,  works  which 
formed  the  bulk  of  the  early  printed  books.  This  fact 
alone  is  sufficient  evidence  that  the  invention  which  at 
this  period  worked  a  veritable  revolution  in  the  intel- 
lectual life  of  the  world,  was  welcomed  by  the  ecclesias- 
tical authorities  as  a  valuable  auxiliary  in  the  work  of 
instruction.  In  England  the  first  presses  were  set  up 
under  the  patronage  of  churchmen,  and  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  early  books  were  actually  works  of 
instruction  or  volumes  furnishing  materials  to  the  clergy 
for  the  familiar  and  simple  discourses  which  they  were 
accustomed  to  give  four  times  a  year  to  their  people. 
Besides  the  large  number  of  what  may  be  regarded  as 
professional  books  chiefly  intended  for  use  by  the 
ecclesiastical  body,  such  as  missals,  manuals,  breviaries, 
and  horae,  and  the  prymers  and  other  prayer-books  used 
by  the  laity,  there  was  an  ample  supply  of  religious 
literature  published  in  the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century.     In  fact,  the  bulk  of  the  early  printed  English 

1  Ibid.,  sig.  D.  5. 


3i6      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

books  were  of  a  religious  character,  and  as  the  pubHca- 
tion  of  such  volumes  was  evidently  a  matter  of  business 
on  the  part  of  the  first  English  printers,  it  is  obvious 
that  this  class  of  literature  commanded  a  ready  sale, 
and  that  the  circulation  of  such  books  was  fostered  by 
those  in  authority  at  this  period.  Volumes  of  sermons, 
works  of  Instruction  on  the  Creed  and  the  Command 
ments,  lives  of  the  saints,  and  popular  expositions  of 
Scripture  history,  were  not  only  produced  but  passed 
through  several  editions  in  a  short  space  of  time.  The 
evidence,  consequently,  of  the  productions  of  the  first 
English  printing-presses  goes  to  show  not  only  that 
religious  books  were  in  great  demand,  but  also  that  so 
far  from  discouraging  the  use  of  such  works  of  instruc- 
tion, the  ecclesiastical  authorities  actively  helped  in 
their  diffusion. 

In  considering  the  religious  education  of  the  people 
in  the  time  previous  to  the  great  upheaval  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  some  account  must  be  taken  of  the 
village  mystery  plays  which  obviously  formed  no  incon- 
siderable part  in  popular  instruction  in  the  great  truths 
of  religion.  The  inventories  of  parish  churches  and 
the  churchwardens'  accounts  which  have  survived 
show  how  very  common  a  feature  these  religious  plays 
formed  in  the  parish  life  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
the  words  of  the  various  dramas,  of  which  we  still 
possess  copies,  show  how  powerful  a  medium  of  teach- 
ing they  would  have  been  among  the  simple  and  un- 
lettered villagers  of  Catholic  England,  and  even  to 
the  crowds  which  at  times  thronged  great  cities  like 
Coventry  and  Chester,  to  be  present  at  the  more 
elaborate  plays  acted  in  these  traditional  centres  of 
the  religious  drama. 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING     317 

As  to  their  popularity  there  can  be  no  question. 
Dramatic  representations  of  the  chief  events  in  the  life 
of  our  Lord,  &c.,  were  commonly  so  associated  with 
the  religious  purposes  for  which  they  were  originally 
produced,  that  they  were  played  on  Sundays  and  feast 
days,  and  not  infrequently  in  churches,  church  porches, 
and  churchyards.  "  Spectacles,  plays,  and  dances  that 
are  used  on  great  feasts,"  says  the  author  of  Dives  et 
Pauper,  quoted  above,  "  as  they  are  done  principally 
for  devotion  and  honest  mirth,  and  to  teach  men  to  love 
God  the  more,  are  lawful  if  the  people  be  not  thereby 
hindered  from  God's  service,  nor  from  hearing  God's 
word,  and  provided  that  in  such  spectacles  and  plays 
there  is  mingled  no  error  against  the  faith  of  Holy 
Church  and  good  living.  All  other  plays  are  pro- 
hibited, both  on  holidays  and  work  days  (according 
to  the  law),  upon  which  the  gloss  saith  that  the  re- 
presentation in  plays  at  Christmas  of  Herod  and  the 
Three  Kings,  and  other  pieces  of  the  Gospel,  both 
then  and  at  Easter  and  other  times,  is  lawful  and  com- 
mendable." 

A  few  examples  of  the  kind  of  teaching  imparted  in 
these  plays  will  give  a  better  idea  of  the  purpose  they 
served  in  pre-Reformation  days  than  any  description. 
There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  such  dramatic 
representations  of  the  chief  mysteries  of  religion  and 
of  scenes  in  the  life  of  our  Lord  or  of  His  saints  served 
to  impress  these  truths  and  events  upon  the  imagina- 
tions of  the  audiences  who  witnessed  them,  and  to 
make  them  vivid  realities  in  a  way  which  we,  who 
are  not  living  in  the  same  religious  atmosphere,  find 
it  difficult  now  to  understand.  The  religious  drama 
was   the  handmaid  of    the  Church,   and  was  intended 


31 8      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

to  assist  in  instructing  the  people  at  large  in  the  truths 
and  duties  of  religion,  just  as  the  paintings  upon  the 
walls  of  the  sacred  buildings  were  designed  to  tell  their 
own  tale  of  the  Bible  history,  and  form  "  a  book  "  ever 
open  to  the  eyes  of  the  unlettered  children  of  the 
Church,  easy  to  be  understood,  graphically  setting 
forth  events  in  the  story  of  God's  dealings  with 
men,  and  illustrating  truths  which  often  formed 
the  groundwork  for  oral  instruction  in  the  Sunday 
sermon. 

Whatever  we  may  be  inclined  to  think  of  these 
simple  plays  as  literary  works,  or  however  we  may 
be  inclined  now  to  smile  at  some  of  the  characters 
and  "  situations,"  as  to  the  pious  spirit  which  dictated 
their  composition  and  presided  over  their  production 
there  can  be  no  doubt.  "  In  great  devotion  and  dis- 
cretion," says  the  monk  and  chronicler,  "  Higden 
published  the  story  of  the  Bible,  that  the  simple  in 
their  own  language  might  understand."  ^ 

This  was  the  motive  of  all  these  mediaeval  religious 
plays.  As  a  popular  writer  upon  the  English  drama  says  : 
^*  There  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  Romish  ecclesi- 
astics in  the  mystery  plays,  especially  that  part  of  them 
relating  to  the  birth,  passion,  and  resurrection  of  Christ, 
had  the  perfectly  serious  intention  of  strengthening  the 
faith  of  the  multitude  in  the  fundamental  doctrines  of 
the  Church,  and  it  seems  the  less  extraordinary  that 
they  should  have  resorted  to  this  expedient  when  we 
reflect  that,  before  the  invention  of  printing,  books  had 
no  existence  for  the  people  at  large."  "^ 

The  subjects  treated  of  in  these   plays    were  very 

1  B.  Mus.  Harl.  MS.  2125,  f.  272. 

"  Penny  Cyclopedia,     Art.,  "  English  Drama." 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING     319 

varied,  although  those  which  were  performed  at  the 
great  feasts  of  Christmas  and  Easter  generally  had  some 
relation  to  the  mystery  then  celebrated.  In  fact,  the 
mystery  plays  of  the  sacred  seasons  were  only  looked 
upon  as  helping  to  make  men  realise  more  deeply  the 
great  drama  of  the  Redemption,  the  memory  of  which 
was  perpetuated  in  the  sequence  of  the  great  festivals 
of  the  Christian  year.  In  such  a  collection  as  that 
known  as  the  Towneley  MysterieSy  and  published  by  the 
Surtees  Society,  we  have  examples  of  the  subjects 
treated  in  the  religious  plays  of  the  period.  The  col- 
lection makes  no  pretence  to  be  complete,  but  it  com- 
prises some  three  and  thirty  plays,  including  such 
subjects  as  the  Creation,  the  death  of  Abel,  the  story 
of  Noah,  the  sacrifice  of  Isaac  and  other  Old  Testa- 
ment histories,  and  a  great  number  of  scenes  from 
the  New  Testament,  such  as  the  Annunciation,  the 
Visitation,  Cassar  Augustus,  scenes  from  the  Nativity, 
the  Shepherds  and  the  Magi,  the  Flight  into  Egypt, 
various  scenes  from  the  Passion  and  Crucifixion,  the 
parable  of  the  Talents,  the  story  of  Lazarus,  &c. 

Any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  read  these 
plays  as  they  are  printed  in  this  volume  cannot  fail 
to  be  impressed  not  only  with  the  vivid  picture  of  the 
special  scene  in  the  Old  or  New  Testament  that  is 
presented  to  the  imagination,  but  by  the  extensive 
knowledge  of  the  Bible  which  the  production  of 
these  plays  must  have  imparted  to  those  who  listened 
to  them,  and  by  the  way  in  which,  incidentally,  the 
most  important  religious  truths  are  conveyed  in  the 
crude  and  rugged  verse.  Again  and  again,  for  in- 
stance, the  entire  dependence  of  all  created  things 
upon    the    Providence    of    Almighty    God    is    declared 


320       THE   EVE   OF  THE   REFORMATION 

and  illustrated.  Thus,  the  confession  of  God's  Omni- 
potence, put  into  the  mouth  of  Noah  at  the  beginning 
of  the  play  of  "  Noah  and  his  Sons,"  contains  a  profes- 
sion of  belief  in  the  Holy  Trinity  and  in  the  work  of 
the  three  Persons  :  it  describes  the  creation  of  the 
world,  the  fall  of  Lucifer,  the  sin  of  our  first  parents, 
and  their  expulsion  from  Paradise.  In  the  story  of 
Abraham,  too,  the  prayer  of  the  patriarch  with  which 

it  begins  : 

"  Adonai,  thou  God  very, 
Thou  hear  us  when  to  Thee  we  call, 
As  Thou  art  He  that  best  may, 
Thou  art  most  succour  and  help  of  all," 

gives  a  complete  resume  of  the  Bible  history  before  the 
days  of  Abraham,  with  the  purpose  of  showing  that  all 
things  are  in  the  hands  of  God,  and  that  complete  obe- 
dience is  due  to  Him  by  all  creatures  whom  He  has 
made. 

The  same  teaching  as  to  the  entire  dependence 
of  the  Christian  for  all  things  upon  God's  Providence 
appears  in  the  address  of  the  soul  to  its  Maker  in 
the  "  morality "  of  Mary  Magdalene,  printed  by  Mr. 
Sharpe  from  the  Digby  Manuscript  collection  of 
religious  plays  : — 

■     ^'Amma:  '  Sovereign  Lord,  I  am  bound  to  Thee  ; 

When  I  was  nought.  Thou  made  me  thus  glorious  ; 
When  I  perished  through  sin.  Thou  saved  me  ; 
When  I  was  in  great  peril,  Thou  kept  me,  Christus  ; 
When  I  erred,  Thou  reduced  me,  Jesus  ; 
When  I  was  ignorant.  Thou  taught  me  truth  ; 
W^hen  I  sinned,  Thou  corrected  me  thus  ; 
When  I  was  heavy.  Thou  comforted  me  by  truth 

(i.e.  Thy  mercy)  ; 
When  I  stand  in  grace.  Thou  boldest  me  that  tide  ; 
When  I  fall,  Thou  raisest  me  mightily ; 


TEACHING  AND  PREACHING     321 

When  I  go  well,  Thou  art  my  guide  ; 

When  I  come,  Thou  receivest  me  most  lovingly  ; 

Thou  hast  anointed  me  with  the  oil  of  mercy  ; 

Thy  benefits.  Lord,  be  innumerable  : 

Wherefore  laud  endless  to  Thee  I  cry  ; 

Recommending  me  to  Thy  endless  power  endurable.' " 

The  more  these  old  plays  which  delighted  our 
forefathers  are  examined,  the  more  clear  it  becomes 
that,  although  undoubtedly  unlearned  and  unread,  the 
people  in  pre-Reformation  days,  with  instruction  such 
as  is  conveyed  in  these  pious  dramas,  must  have  had 
a  deeper  insight  into  the  Gospel  narrative,  and  a  more 
thorough  knowledge  of  Bible  history  generally,  not  to 
speak  of  a  comprehension  of  the  great  truths  of 
religion,  than  the  majority  of  men  possess  now  in 
these  days  of  boasted  enlightenment.  Some  of  the 
plays,  as  for  example  that  representing  St.  Peter's 
fall,  exhibit  a  depth  of  genuine  feeling,  of  humble 
sorrow,  for  instance,  on  the  part  of  St.  Peter,  and  of 
loving-kindness  on  the  part  of  our  Lord,  which  must 
have  come  home  to  the  hearts  as  well  as  to  the  minds 
of  the  beholders.  At  the  same  time,  the  lesson  deduced 
by  our  Saviour  from  the  apostle's  fall,  namely,  the 
need  of  all  learning  by  their  own  shortcomings  to  be 
merciful  to  the  trespasses  of  others,  must  have  im- 
pressed itself  upon  them  with  a  force  which  would 
not  easily  have  been  forgotten. 

In  that  most  popular  of  all  representations — that 
of  Doomsday — "  people  learnt  that  before  God  there 
is  no  distinction  of  persons,  and  that  each  individual 
soul  will  be  judged  on  its  own  merits,  quite  apart 
from  any  fictitious  human  distinctions  of  rank,  wealth, 
or  power."  Thus,  as  types,  appear  a  saved  pope, 
emperor,    king    and    queen,   and   amongst    the   damned 

X 


322      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

we  also  find  a  pope,  emperor,  king  and  queen, 
justiciar  and  merchant."  And  the  words  of  thankful- 
ness uttered  by  the  Pope  that  has  obtained  his  crown 
betrays  "  no  self-satisfaction  at  the  attainment  of  salva- 
tion ;  on  the  contrary,  the  true  ring  of  Christian 
humility  betokens  a  due  appreciation  of  God's  un- 
utterable holiness,  and  our  unworthiness  to  stand 
before  His  face  till  the  uttermost  blemish  left  by  sin 
has  been  wiped  away  "  by  the  healing  fires  of  Purga- 
tory. No  less  clearly  is  the  full  doctrine  of  responsi- 
bihty  taught  in  the  lament  of  the  Pope,  who  is 
represented  as  having  lost  his  soul  by  an  evil  life, 
and  as  being  condemned  to  eternal  punishment.  The 
mere  fact  of  a  pope  being  so  represented  was  in 
itself,  when  the  Office  was  held  in  the  highest  regard, 
a  lesson  of  the  highest  importance  in  the  teaching 
of  the  true  principles  of  holiness.  In  a  word,  these 
mystery  plays  provided  a  most  useful  means  of  im- 
pressing upon  the  minds  of  all  the  facts  of  Bible 
history,  the  great  truths  of  religion,  and  the  chief 
Christian  virtues.  The  people  taught  in  such  a  school 
and  the  people  who  delighted  in  such  representations, 
as  our  forefathers  in  pre-Reformation  days  unquestion- 
ably did,  cannot,  even  from  this  point  of  view  alone,  be 
regarded  as  ignorant  of  scriptural  or  moral  teaching. 


CHAPTER   X 

PARISH    LIFE    IN    CATHOLIC   ENGLAND 

To  understand  the  attitude  of  men's  minds  to  the 
ecclesiastical  system  on  the  eve  of  the  great  religious 
changes  of  the  sixteenth  century,  some  knowledge  of 
the  parochial  life  of  Catholic  England  is  necessary. 
Under  present  conditions,  when  unity  has  given  place 
to  diversity,  and  three  centuries  of  continuous  wrangling 
"  over  secret  truths  which  most  profoundly  affect  the 
heart  and  mind "  have  done  much  to  coarsen  and 
deaden  our  spiritual  sense ;  when  the  religious  mind 
of  England  manifests  every  shade  of  belief  and  unbelief 
without  conscious  reflection  on  the  logical  absurdity  of 
the  position,  it  is  by  no  means  easy  to  realise  the  in- 
fluence of  a  state  of  affairs  when  all  men,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest,  in  every  village  and  hamlet 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land,  had 
but  one  creed,  worshipped  their  Maker  in  but  one  way, 
and  were  bound  together  with  what  most  certainly 
were  to  them  the  real  and  practical  ties  of  the  Christian 
brotherhood.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  overestimate  the 
effect  of  surroundings  upon  individual  opinion,  or  the 
influence  of  a  congenial  atmosphere  both  on  the  growth 
and  development  of  a  spirit  of  religion  and  on  the 
preservation  of  Christian  morals  and  religious  practices 
generally.  When  all,  so  far  as  religious  faith  is  con- 
cerned,  thought    the   same,   and   when    all,    so    far    as 


324      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

religious  observance  is  concerned,  did  the  same,  the 
very  atmosphere  of  unity  was  productive  of  that  spirit 
of  common  brotherhood,  which  appears  so  plainly  in 
the  records  of  the  period  preceding  the  religious  revolt 
of  the  sixteenth  century.  Those  who  will  read  below 
the  surface  and  will  examine  for  themselves  into  the 
social  life  of  that  time  must  admit,  however  much  they 
feel  bound  to  condemn  the  existing  religious  system, 
that  it  certainly  maintained  up  to  the  very  time  of 
its  overthrow  a  hold  over  the  minds  and  hearts  of 
the  people  at  large,  which  nothing  since  has  gained. 
Religion  overflowed,  as  it  were,  into  popular  life,  and 
helped  to  sanctify  human  interests,  whilst  the  affection 
of  the  people  was  manifested  in  a  thousand  ways  in 
regard  to  what  we  might  now  be  inclined  to  consider 
the  ecclesiastical  domain.  Whether  for  good  or  evil, 
religion  in  its  highest  and  truest  sense,  at  least  as  it 
was  then  understood,  was  to  the  English  people  as  the 
bloom  upon  the  choicest  fruit.  Whatever  view  may 
be  taken  as  to  advantage  or  disadvantage  which  came 
to  the  body  politic,  or  to  individuals,  by  the  Reforma- 
tion, it  must  be  admitted  that  at  least  part  of  the  price 
paid  for  the  change  was  the  destruction  of  the  sense 
of  corporate  unity  and  common  brotherhood,  which 
was  fostered  by  the  religious  unanimity  of  belief  and 
practice  in  every  village  in  the  country,  and  which,  as 
in  the  main-spring  of  its  life,  and  the  very  central 
point  of  its  being,  centred  in  the  Church  with  its  rites 
and  ceremonies. 

A  Venetian  traveller  at  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century  bears  witness  to  the  influence  of  religion 
upon  the  English  people  of  that  time.  His  opinion  is 
all  the  more  valuable,  inasmuch  as  he  appeals  to  the 


PARISH   LIFE  IN  CATHOLIC  ENGLAND     325 

experience  of  his  master,  who  was  also  the  companion 
of  his  travels,  to  confirm  his  own  impressions,  and  as 
he  was  fully  alive  to  the  weak  points  in  the  English 
character,  of  which  he  thus  records  his  opinion  :  "  The 
English  are  great  lovers  of  themselves  and  of  every- 
thing belonging  to  them  ;  they  think  that  there  are  no 
other  men  but  themselves  and  no  other  world  but 
England.  Whenever  they  see  a  handsome  foreigner 
they  say  that  '  he  looks  like  an  Englishman,'  or  that 
'  it  is  a  great  pity  that  he  should  not  be  an  English- 
man/ and  when  they  partake  of  any  delicacy  with  a 
foreigner  they  ask  him  whether  such  a  thing  is  made 
in  his  country."  ^  In  regard  to  the  religious  practices 
of  the  people,  this  intelligent  foreigner  says,  "  They  all 
attend  mass  every  day,  and  say  many  Paternosters  in 
public.  The  women  carry  long  rosaries  in  their  hands, 
and  any  who  can  read  take  the  Office  of  Our  Lady 
with  them,  and  with  some  companion  recite  it  in 
Church  verse  by  verse,  in  a  low  voice,  after  the 
manner  of  churchmen.  On  Sundays  they  always  hear 
Mass  in  their  parish  church  and  give  liberal  alms, 
because  they  may  not  offer  less  than  a  piece  of  money 
of  which  fourteen  are  equivalent  to  a  golden  ducat. 
Neither  do  they  omit  any  form  incumbent  on  good 
Christians."  " 

In  these  days  perhaps  the  suggestion  that  the 
English  people  commonly  in  the  early  sixteenth  century 
were  present  daily  at  morning  Mass  is  likely  to  be 
received  with  caution,  and  classed  among  the  strange 
tales  proverbially  told  by  travellers,  then  as  now.  It 
is,  however,  confirmed  by  another  Venetian  who  visited 

^  A  Relation  of  the  Island  of  England  {Q.'xmAtn  Society),  p.  20. 
-  Ibid.,  p.  23. 


326      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

England  some  few  years  later,  and  who  asserts  that 
every  morning  "  at  daybreak  he  went  to  Mass  arm-in- 
arm with  some  English  nobleman  or  other."  ^  And, 
indeed,  the  same  desire  of  the  people  to  be  present 
daily  at  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Mass  is  attested  by  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer  when,  after  the  change  had  come,  he 
holds  up  to  ridicule  the  traditional  observances  pre- 
viously in  vogue.  What  he  specially  objected  to  was 
the  common  practice  of  those  who  run,  as  he  says, 
"  from  altar  to  altar,  and  from  sacring,  as  they  call  it, 
to  sacring,  peeping,  tooting,  and  gazing  at  that  thing 
which  the  priest  held  up  in  his  hands  .  .  .  and  saying, 
'  this  day  have  I  seen  my  Maker,'  and  '  I  cannot  be 
quiet  except  I  see  my  Maker  once  a  day.'  "  ^ 

If  there  were  no  other  evidence  of  the  affection 
of  the  English  people  on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation 
for  their  religion,  that  of  the  stone  walls  of  the  churches 
would  be  sufficient  to  prove  the  sincerity  of  their  love. 
In  the  whole  history  of  English  architecture  nothing  is 
more  remarkable  than  the  activity  in  church  building 
manifested  during  the  later  half  of  the  fifteenth  and 
the  early  part  of  the  sixteenth  centuries.  From  one 
end  of  England  to  the  other  in  the  church  walls  are  to 
be  seen  the  evidences  of  thought  and  skill,  labour  and 
wealth,  spent  freely  upon  the  sacred  buildings  during 
a  period  when  it  might  not  unnaturally  have  been 
thought  that  the  civil  dissensions  of  the  Wars  of  the 
Roses,  and  the  consequent  destruction  of  life  and 
property,  would  have  been  fatal  to  enterprise  in  the 
field  of  church  building  and  church  decoration  and 
enrichment.     It  is  not  in  any  way  an  exaggeration  to 

1  Venetian  Calendar,  ii.  p.  91. 

-  Works  on  the  Supper  (Parker  Society),  p.  229. 


PARISH   LIFE   IN   CATHOLIC   ENGLAND      327 

say  that  well-nigh  every  village  church  in  England  can 
show  signs  of  this  marvellous  activity,  whilst  in  many 
cases  there  is  unmistakable  evidence  of  personal  care 
and  thought  in  the  smallest  details. 

No  less  remarkable  than  the  extent  of  this  move- 
ment is  the  source  from  which  the  money  necessary 
for  all  the  work  upon  the  cathedrals  and  parish  churches 
of  the  country  came.  In  previous  centuries,  to  a 
great  extent  churches  and  monastic  buildings  owed 
their  existence  and  embellishment  mainly  to  the  in- 
dividual enterprise  of  the  powerful  nobles  or  rich 
ecclesiastics ;  but  from  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century  the  numerous,  and,  in  many  cases,  even  vast 
operations,  undertaken  in  regard  to  ecclesiastical  build- 
ings and  ornamentation,  were  the  work  of  the  people 
at  large,  and  were  mainly  directed  by  their  chosen 
representatives.  At  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
church  work  was  in  every  sense  of  the  word  a 
popular  work,  and  the  wills,  inventories,  and  church- 
wardens' accounts  prove  beyond  question  that  the  people 
generally  contributed  generously  according  to  their 
means,  and  that  theirs  was  the  initiative,  and  theirs 
the  energetic  administration  by  which  the  whole  was 
accomplished.^  Gifts  of  money  and  valuables,  bequests 
of  all  kinds,  systematic  collections  by  parish  officials,  or 
by  directors  of  guilds,  often  extending  over  considerable 

^  To  take  one  instance  :  the  church  of  St.  Neots  possessed  many  stained  glass 
windows  placed  in  their  present  positions  between  the  years  1480  and  1530. 
Almost  all  of  them  were  put  in  by  individuals,  as  the  inscriptions  below  testify. 
In  the  case  of  three  of  the  lights  it  appears  that  groups  of  people  joined  to- 
gether to  beautify  their  parish  church.  Thus  below  one  of  the  windows  in  the 
north  aisle  is  the  following:  ^^  Ex  stimptilnis  jiiveniitn  htijiis  parochicc  Sancti 
Neoti  qui  istaiti  fenestram  fecerunt  mino  domini  millessimo  qumgentessimo 
vicessimo  octavo."  Another  window  states  that  it  was  made  in  1529,  ''^ Ex 
sumptibtis  sororuin  hiijiis  parochice"  ;  and  a  third  in  1530,  '■'■Ex  sumptibiis 
uxorum.'" 


328      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

periods,  and  the  proceeds  of  parish  plays  and  parish 
feasts,  were  the  ordinary  means  by  which  the  sums 
necessary  to  carry  out  these  works  of  building  and 
embellishment  were  provided.  Those  who  had  no 
money  to  give  brought  articles  of  jewellery,  such  as 
rings,  brooches,  buckles,  and  the  like,  or  articles  of 
dress  or  of  domestic  utility,  to  be  converted  into  vest- 
ments, banners,  and  altar  hangings  to  adorn  the  images 
and  shrines,  to  make  the  sacred  vessels  of  God's  house,  or 
to  be  sold  for  like  purposes.  For  the  same  end,  and 
to  secure  the  perpetuity  of  lamps  before  the  Blessed 
Sacrament,  or  lights  before  the  altars  of  saints,  people 
gave  houses  and  lands  into  the  care  of  the  parish 
officials,  or  made  over  to  them  cattle  and  sheep  to 
be  held  in  trust,  which,  when  let  out  at  a  rent, 
formed  a  permanent  endowment  for  the  furtherance 
of  these  sacred  purposes. 

Undoubtedly  the  period  with  which  we  are  con- 
cerned was  not  merely  an  age  of  building,  but  an  age 
of  decoration,  and  of  decoration  which  may  almost 
be  described  as  "  lavish."  The  very  architecture  of 
the  time  is  proof  of  the  wealth  of  ornament  with  which 
men  sought  to  give  expression  to  their  enthusiastic 
love  of  the  Houses  of  God,  which  they  had  come  to 
regard  as  the  centre  of  their  social  no  less  than  of 
their  religious  life.  Flowing  lines  in  tracery  and  arch 
moulding  gave  place  to  straight  lines,  groined  roofs 
were  enriched  by  extra  ribs,  and  panels  of  elaborate 
work  covered  the  plain  surfaces  of  former  times  ;  the 
very  key-stones  of  the  vaulting  became  pendants,  and 
the  springers  branched  out  like  palm  trees,  forming 
that  rich  and  entirely  English  variety  of  groin  called 
''  fan-tracery,"    such    as    we    see    at    Sherborne,    Eton, 


PARISH   LIFE   IN  CATHOLIC   ENGLAND      329 

King's  College,  Cambridge,  and  Henry  VI I. 's  Chapel 
at  Westminster.  "  In  other  respects,"  says  a  modern 
writer,  "the  architects  of  the  fifteenth  century  were 
very  successful.  Few  things  can  be  seen  more  beau- 
tiful than  the  steeples  of  Gloucester  Cathedral  and 
St.  Mary's,  Taunton.  The  open  roofs,  as  for  example 
that  of  St.  Peter  Mancroft,  Norwich,  are  superb,  and 
finally  they  have  left  us  a  large  number  of  enormous 
parish  churches  all  over  the  country,  full  of  interesting 
furniture  and  decoration." 

The  fact  is,  that  this  was  the  last  expression  of  Gothic 
as  a  living  art.  The  builders  and  beautifiers  of  the 
English  churches  on  the  eve  of  the  religious  changes 
spoke  still  a  living  language,  and  their  works  still  tell 
us  of  the  fulness  of  the  hearts  which  planned  and 
executed  such  works.  It  is  somewhat  difficult  for  us 
to  understand  this,  when  living  in  an  age  of  imitation, 
and  at  a  time  when  architecture  has  no  longer  a  lan- 
guage of  its  own.  "  Imitation,"  writes  Mr.  Ferguson, 
"  is  in  fact  all  we  aim  at  in  the  architectural  art  of 
the  present  day.  We  entrust  its  exercise  to  a  specially 
educated  class,  most  learned  in  the  details  of  the  style 
they  are  called  upon  to  work  in,  and  they  produce 
buildings  which  delight  the  scholars  and  archaeologists 
of  the  day,  but  which  the  less  educated  classes  neither 
understand  nor  appreciate,  and  which  will  lose  their 
significance  the  moment  the  fashion  which  produced 
them  has  passed  away. 

"  The  difference  between  this  artificial  state  of 
things  and  the  practice  of  a  true  style  will  not  be 
difficult  to  understand.  When,  for  instance,  Gothic 
was  a  living  art  in  England,  men  expressed  themselves 
in  it  as  in  any  other  part  of  the  vernacular.     Whatever 


330      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

was  done  was  a  part  of  the  usual,  ordinary  every-day 
life,  and  men  had  no  more  difficulty  in  understanding 
what  others  were  doing  than  in  comprehending  what 
they  were  saying.  A  mason  did  not  require  to  be 
a  learned  man  to  chisel  what  he  had  carved  ever  since 
he  was  a  boy,  and  what  alone  he  had  seen  being  done 
during  his  lifetime,  and  he  adapted  new  forms  just  in 
the  same  manner  and  as  naturally  as  men  adapt  new 
modes  of  expression  in  language  as  they  happen  to  be 
introduced,  without  even  remarking  it.  At  that  time 
any  educated  man  could  design  in  Gothic  Art,  just  as 
any  man  who  can  read  and  write  can  now  compose  and 
give  utterance  to  any  poetry  or  prose  that  may  be  in  him. 

"  Where  art  is  a  true  art,  it  is  naturally  practised  and 
as  easily  understood,  as  a  vernacular  literature  of  which, 
indeed,  it  is  an  essential  and  most  expressive  part,  and 
so  it  was  in  Greece  and  Rome,  and  so,  too,  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  But  with  us  it  is  little  more  than  a  dead  corpse, 
galvanised  into  spasmodic  life  by  a  few  selected  practi- 
tioners for  the  amusement  and  delight  of  a  small  section 
of  the  specially  educated  classes.  It  expresses  truthfully 
neither  our  wants  nor  our  feelings,  and  we  ought  not 
to  be  surprised  how  very  unsatisfactory  every  modern 
building  really  is,  even  when  executed  by  the  most 
talented  architects  as  compared  with  the  productions 
of  our  village  mason  or  parish  priest  at  an  age  when 
men  sought  only  to  express  clearly  what  they  felt 
strongly,  and  sought  to  do  it  only  in  their  natural 
mother  tongue,  untrammelled  by  the  fetters  of  a  dead 
or  familiar  foreign  form  of  speech."  ^ 

To  any  one  who  will  examine  the  churchwardens' 
accounts  of  the  period  previous  to  the  religious  changes, 

^  History  of  Mode7-n  Architecture,  pp.  37,  87. 


PARISH   LIFE   IN   CATHOLIC  ENGLAND      331 

the   truth   of    the  above   quotation   will  clearly   appear. 
Then,   if  ever,   ecclesiastical   art   and   architecture    was 
the  living   expression    of    popular    feeling   and   popular 
love    of    religion,    and    the    wholesale     destruction     of 
ancient  architectural   monuments  throughout  the  land, 
the  pulling  down  of  rood   and   screen   and   image,  the 
casting  down  of  monuments  sacred  to  the  memory  of 
the  best  and  holiest  and  most  venerated  names  in  the 
long  roll  of  English  men  of  honour,  the  breaking  up  of 
stone-work  and  metal-work  upon  which  the  marks  of 
the  chisel  of  the  mason  and  graver  were  yet  fresh,  the 
whitewash  daubed  over  paintings  which  had  helped  to 
make  the  parish  churches  objects  of  beauty  and  interest 
to  the  people,   the  ruthless  smashing   of   the   pictured 
window  lights,  and  the  pillage  of  the  sacred  vessels  and 
vestments  and  hangings,   which   the   people   and  their 
fathers  had  loved  to  provide  for  God's  service — all  this 
and  much  more  of  the  same  kind,  the  perhaps  inevitable 
accompaniments  of  the    religious  change,  ,was  nothing 
less  to  the  people  than  proscription  by  authority  of  the 
national  language  of  art  and  architecture,  such  as  they 
had  hitherto  understood  it.     And  never  probably  had 
the  language  been  more  truly  the  language  of  the  people 
at  large.     For  reasons  just  assigned,  the  work  of  church 
building   and  church   decoration,  and   the  provision  of 
vestments  and  plate,  the  care  of  the  fabric  and  the  very 
details  of  things  necessary  for  the  church  services,  were 
in  the  hands  of  the  people.     The  period  in  question  had 
given  rise  to   the  great    middle   class,   and   here,   as  in 
Germany,  the  burgher  folk,  the  merchants  and  traders, 
began  literally  to  lavish  their  gifts  in  adornment  of  their 
parish   churches,   and  to  vie  one  with   another  in  the 
profusion  of  their  generosity. 


332       THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

It  is  somewhat  difficult  for  us,  as  we  look  upon  the 
generally  bare  and  unfurnished  churches  that  have  been 
left  to  us  as  monuments  of  the  past  about  which  we  are 
concerned,  to  realise  what  the}^  must  have  been  before 
what  a  modern  writer  has  fitly  called  "  the  great  pillage  " 
commenced.  All,  from  the  great  minsters  and  cathedral 
churches  down  to  the  poorest  little  village  sanctuary, 
were  in  those  days  simply  overflowing  with  wealth  and 
objects  of  beauty  which  loving  hands  had  gathered 
together  to  adorn  God's  house,  and  to  make  it  the  best 
and  brightest  spot  in  their  little  world,  and  so  far  as 
their  means  would  allow  the  very  pride  of  their  hearts. 
This  is  no  fancy  picture.  The  inventories  of  English 
churches  in  this  period  when  compared,  say,  with  those 
of  Italy,  reveal  the  fact  that  the  former  w^ere  in  every 
way  incomparably  better  furnished  than  the  latter. 
The  Venetian  traveller  in  England  in  1500  was  im- 
pressed by  this  very  thing  during  his  journeyings 
throughout  the  country.  He  notes  and  comments 
upon  the  great  sums  of  money  regularly  given  to  the 
church  as  a  matter  of  course  by  Englishmen  of  all 
sorts.  Then  after  speaking  of  the  important  wealth 
of  the  country  as  evidenced  by  the  silver  plate  pos- 
sessed by  all  but  the  poorest  in  the  land,  he  con- 
tinues :  ''  But  above  all  are  their  riches  displayed  in  the 
church  treasures,  for  there  is  not  a  parish  church  in  the 
kingdom  so  mean  as  not  to  possess  crucifixes,  candle- 
sticks, censers,  patens  and  cups  of  silver,  nor  is  there  a 
convent  of  mendicant  friars  so  poor  as  not  to  have  all 
these  same  articles  in  silver,  besides  many  other  orna- 
ments worthy  of  a  cathedral  church  in  the  same  metal. 
Your  magnificence  may  therefore  imagine  what  the 
decorations  of  those  enormously  rich  Benedictine,  Car- 


PARISH   LIFE   IN   CATHOLIC  ENGLAND      335 

thusian,  and  Cistercian  monasteries  must  be.  ...  I 
have  been  informed  that  amongst  other  things  many  of 
these  monasteries  possess  unicorns'  horns  of  an  extraor- 
dinary size.  I  have  also  been  told  that  they  have  some 
splendid  tombs  of  English  saints,  such  as  St.  Oswald, 
St.  Edmund,  and  St.  Edward,  all  kings  and  martyrs. 
I  saw,  one  day  being  with  your  magnificence,  at  West- 
minster, a  place  out  of  London,  the  tomb  of  that  saint, 
King  Edward  the  Confessor,  in  the  church  of  the  fore- 
said place,  Westminster  ;  and  indeed,  neither  St.  Martin 
of  Tours,  a  church  in  France,  which  I  have  heard  is. 
one  of  the  richest  in  existence,  nor  anything  else  that 
I  have  ever  seen,  can  be  put  into  comparison  with  it.. 
The  magnificence  of  the  tomb  of  St.  Thomas  the- 
Martyr,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  surpasses  all  belief." 
Our  present  concern,  however,  is  not  with  the: 
greater  churches  of  the  kingdom,  but  with  the  parish 
churches  which  were  scattered  in  such  profusion  all 
over  the  country.  An  examination  of  such  parochial 
accounts  as  are  still  preserved  affords  an  insight  into 
the  working  of  the  parish,  and  evidences  the  care 
taken  by  the  people  to  maintain  and  increase  the 
treasures  of  their  churches.  What  is  most  remark- 
able about  the  accounts  that  remain,  which  are,  of 
course,  but  the  scanty  survivals  from  the  wreck,  is 
their  consistent  tenor.  They  one  and  all  tell  the 
same  story  of  general  and  intelligent  interest  taken 
by  the  people  as  a  whole  in  the  beautifying  and 
supporting  of  their  parish  churches.  In  a  very  real 
sense,  that  seems  strange  to  us  now,  it  was  their 
church ;  their  life  centred  in  it,  and  they  were  inti- 
mately concerned  in  its  working  and  management. 
The    articles    of    furniture     and    plate,    the    vestments 


334      THE   EVE   OF  THE   REFORMATION 

and  hangings  had  a  well-known  history,  and  were 
regarded  as — what  in  truth  they  were — the  common 
property  of  every  soul  in  the  particular  village  or  district. 
Such  accounts  as  we  are  referring  to  prove  that  specific 
gifts  and  contributions  continued  to  flow  in  an  ample 
stream  to  the  churches  from  men  and  women  of  every 
sort  and  condition  up  to  the  very  eve  of  the  great 
religious  changes. 

From  these  and  similar  records  we  may  learn  a 
^ood  deal  about  parochial  life  and  interests  in  the 
closing  period  of  the  old  ecclesiastical  system.  The 
church  was  the  common  care  and  business.  Its 
welfare  was  the  concern  of  the  people  at  large,  and 
took  its  natural  place  in  their  daily  lives.  Was  there 
.any  building  to  be  done,  a  new  peal  of  bells  to  be 
procured,  the  organs  to  be  mended,  new  plate  to  be 
bought,  or  the  like,  it  was  the  parish  as  a  corporate 
body  that  decided  the  matter,  arranged  the  details,  and 
provided  for  the  payment.  At  times,  say  for  example 
when  a  new  vestment  was  in  question,  the  whole  parish 
would  be  called  to  sit  in  council  in  the  church  house 
upon  this  matter  of  common  interest,  and  discuss  the 
cost,  and  stufif,  and  make. 

To  take  some  examples  :  the  inventory  of  Cranbrook 
parish  church  for  1509  shows  that  all  benefactors  were 
regularly  noted  down  on  a  roll  of  honour,  that  their 
gifts  might  be  known  and  remembered.  The  presents, 
of  course,  vary  greatly  in  value  :  thus,  there  was  a 
monstrance  of  silver  and  gilt  of  the  "value  of  ;£2  0, 
of  Sir  Robert  Egelonby's  gift  ;  which  Sir  Robert  was 
John  Roberts'  priest  thirty  years,  and  he  never  had 
other  service  nor  benefice  ;  and  the  said  John  Roberts 
wvas  father  to  Walter  Roberts,  Esquire."     And  the  fore- 


PARISH   LIFE  IN   CATHOLIC  ENGLAND      335 

said  Sir  Robert  gave  also  to  the  common  treasury  of 
the  parish  "  two  candlesticks  of  silver  and  twenty  marks 
of  old  nobles."  Again  John  Hendely  "gave  three  copes 
of  purple  velvet,  whereof  one  was  of  velvet  upon  velvet 
with  images  broidered,"  and,  adds  the  inventory,  <'  for 
a  perpetual  memory  of  this  deed  of  goodness  to  the 
common  purposes  of  the  parish  church,  his  name  is  to 
be  read  out  to  the  people  on  festival  days."  "  He  is 
grandfather  of  Gervase  Hendely  of  Cushorn,  and  of 
Thomas  of  Cranbrook  Street."  Or  once  more,  it  is 
recorded  that  ''old  mother  Hopper"  gave  the  "two 
long  candlesticks  before  Our  Lady's  altar,  fronted  with 
lions,  and  a  towel  on  the  rood  of  Our  Lady's  chancel." 

So,  too,  the  inventory  of  the  church  goods  of  St. 
Dunstan's,  Canterbury,  includes  a  wonderful  list  of 
furniture,  plate,  and  vestments  to  which  the  names  of 
the  donors  are  attached.  Thus,  the  best  chalice  was 
the  gift  of  one  "  Harry  Bole  "  ;  the  two  great  candle- 
sticks of  laten  of  John  Philpot  ;  and  "  a  kercher  for  Our 
Lady  and  a  chapplet  and  a  powdryd  cap  for  her  Son," 
the  gift  of  Margery  Roper. 

The  memory  of  these  gifts  was  kept  alive  among  the 
people  by  the  "  bede-roU "  or  list  of  those  for  whom 
the  parish  was  bound  to  pray  in  return  for  their  bene- 
factions to  the  public  good.  Thus  to  take  an  example  : 
at  Leverton,  in  the  county  of  Lincoln,  the  parson.  Sir 
John  Wright,  presented  the  church  with  a  suit  of  red 
purple  vestments,  "  for  the  which,"  says  the  note  in  the 
churchwardens'  accounts,  "  you  shall  all  specially  pray 
for  the  souls  of  William  Wright  and  Elizabeth  his  wife 
(father  and  mother  of  the  donor),  and  for  the  soul  of 
Sir  William  Wright,  their  son,  and  for  the  soul  of  Sir 
John,  sometime  parson  of  this  place,  and  for  the  souls  of 


336      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

Richard  Wright  and  Isabel  his  wife,  John  Trowting  and 
Helen  his  wife,  and  for  all  benefactors,  as  well  them 
that  be  alive  as  them  that  be  departed  to  the  mercy  of 
God,  for  whose  lives  and  souls  are  given  here  (these  vest- 
ments) to  the  honour  of  God,  His  most  blessed  Mother, 
Our  Lady  Saint  Mary,  and  all  His  Saints  in  Heaven,  and 
the  blessed  matron  St.  Helen  his  patron,  to  be  used  at 
such  principal  feasts  and  times  as  it  shall  please  the 
curates  as  long  as  they  shall  last.  For  all  these  souls 
and  all  Christian  souls  you  shall  say  one  Paternoster."  ^ 
In  this  way  the  memory  of  benefactors  and  their 
good  deeds  was  ever  kept  alive  in  the  minds  of  those 
who  benefited  by  their  gifts.  The  parish  treasury  was 
not  to  them  so  much  stock,  the  accumulation  of  years^ 
without  definite  history  or  purpose  ;  but  every  article, 
vestment,  banner,  hanging,  and  chalice,  and  the  rest 
called  for  the  affectionate  memories  of  both  the  living 
and  the  dead.  On  high  day  and  festival,  when  the 
church  was  decked  with  all  that  was  best  and  richest  in 
the  parochial  treasury,  the  display  of  the  parish  orna- 
ments recalled  to  the  mind  of  the  people  assembled 
within  its  walls  the  memory  of  good  deeds  done  by 
neighbours  for  the  common  good.  "  The  immense 
treasures  in  the  churches,"  writes  Dr.  Jessop,  "  were  the 
joy  and  boast  of  every  man  and  woman  and  child  in 
England,  who  day  by  day  and  week  by  week  assembled 
to  worship  in  the  old  houses  of  God  which  they  and  their 
fathers  had  built,  and  whose  every  vestment  and  chalice 
and  candlestick  and  banner,  organs  and  bells  and  pic- 
ture and  image  and  altar  and  shrine,  they  looked  upon 
as  their  own  and  part  of  their  birthright."  ^ 

^  Archixologia,  vol.  xli.  p.  355. 

1  Parish  Life  in  England  befoi-e the  Great  Pillage  ("Nineteenth  Century," 
March  1898),  p.  433. 


PARISH   LIFE   IN   CATHOLIC   ENGLAND     337 

What  seems  so  strange  about  the  facts  revealed  to 
us  in  these  church  accounts  of  bygone  times  is  that, 
where  now  we  might  naturally  be  inclined  to  look  for 
poverty  and  meanness,  there  is  evidence  of  the  contrary, 
so  far  as  the  parish  church  is  concerned.  Even  when 
the  lives  of  the  parishioners  were  spent  in  daily  labours 
to  secure  the  bare  necessities  of  life,  and  the  village  was 
situated  m  the  most  out-of-the-way  part  of  the  country, 
the  sordid  surroundings  of  a  hard  life  find  no  counter- 
part in  the  parish  accounts  so  far  as  the  church  is  con- 
cerned, but  even  under  such  unfavourable  circumstances 
there  is  evidence  of  a  taste  for  things  of  art  and  beauty, 
and  of  both  the  will  and  power  to  procure  them.  To 
take  some  examples  :  Morebath  was  a  small  uplandish 
parish  of  no  importance  lying  within  the  borders  of 
Devon,  among  the  hills  near  the  sources  of  the  river  Exe. 
The  population  was  scanty,  and  worldly  riches  evidently 
not  abundant.  Morebath  may,  consequently,  be  taken 
as  a  fair  sample  of  an  obscure  and  poor  village  com- 
munity. For  this  hamlet  we  possess  fairly  full  accounts 
for  the  close  of  the  period  under  consideration,  namely, 
from  the  year  1530.  At  this  time,  in  this  poor  place, 
there  were  no  less  than  eight  separate  accounts  kept  of 
money  intended  for  the  support  of  different  altars,  or 
for  carrying  out  definite  decorations,  such  as,  for 
example,  the  chapels  of  St.  George  and  Our  Lady, 
and  the  guilds  of  the  young  men  and  maidens  of  the 
parish.  To  the  credit  of  these  various  accounts,  or 
'<  stores,"  as  they  are  called,  are  entered  numerous  gifts 
of  money,  or  articles  of  value,  and  even  of  kind,  like 
cows  and  swarms  of  bees.  Most  of  them  are  possessed 
of  cattle  and  sheep,  the  proceeds  from  the  rent  of  which 
form  a  considerable  portion  of  their  endowment.     The 

Y 


338      THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

accounts  as  a  whole  furnish  abundant  evidence  of  active 
and  intelligent  interest  in  the  support  and  adornment  of 
the  parish  church  on  the  part  of  the  people  at  large. 
Voluntary  rates  to  clear  off  obligations  contracted  for 
the  benefit  of  the  community,  such  as  the  purchase  of 
bells,  the  repair  of  the  fabric,  or  even  the  making  of 
roads  and  bridges,  were  raised.  Collections  for  Peter's 
pence,  for  the  support  of  the  parish  clerk,  and  for  various 
other  church  purposes,  are  recorded,  and  the  spirit  of 
self-help  is  evidenced  in  every  line  of  these  records.  In 
1528  the  vicar  gave  up  his  rights  to  certain  wool  tithes 
in  order  to  purchase  a  complete  set  of  black  vestments, 
which  were  only  finished  and  paid  for,  at  the  cost  of 
^6,  5s.  od.,  in  1547.  In  the  year  1538,  the  parish 
made  a  voluntary  rate  to  purchase  a  new  cope,  and  the 
collection  for  the  purpose  secured  ^3,  6s.  8d.  When 
in  1534  the  silver  chalice  was  stolen,  "ye  yong  men 
and  maydens  of  ye  parysshe  dru  themselffe  together, 
and  at  ther  gyfts  and  provysyon  they  bought  in  another 
chalice  without  any  charge  of  the  parysshe."  Sums  of 
money  big  and  small,  specific  gifts  in  kind,  the  stuff  or 
ornaments  needed  for  vestments,  were  apparently  always 
forthcoming  when  occasion  required.  Thus  at  one 
time  a  new  cope  is  suggested,  and  Anne  Tymwell  of 
Hayne  gave  the  churchwardens  her  "gown  and  ring," 
Joan  Tymwell  a  cloak  and  girdle,  and  Richard  Norman 
"  seven  sheep  and  three  shillings  and  four  pence  in 
money,"  towards  the  expenses.  At  another  time  it  is  a 
set  of  black  vestments  ;  at  another  a  chalice  ;  at  another 
a  censer  ;  but  whatever  it  was,  the  people  were  evidently 
ready  and  desirous  of  taking  their  share  in  the  common 
work  of  the  parish.  In  1529  the  wardens  state  that 
Elinor    Nicoll    gave   to    the  store   of    St.   Sydwell    her 


PARISH   LIFE   IN   CATHOLIC  ENGLAND      339 

wedding-ring — "  the  which  ring,"  they  add,  "  did  help  to 
make  Saint  Sydwell's  shoes."  Then  she  gave  to  "  the 
store  of  Jesus  "  a  little  silver  cross,  parcel  gilt,  of  the 
value  of  4d.  In  1537  there  is  one  item  which  deserves 
to  be  noted,  as  it  records  the  arrival  of  a  piece  of  spoil 
from  Barlinch  Abbey  Church,  which  was  dissolved  by 
the  king's  orders  the  previous  year.  "  Memorandum," 
runs  the  entry,  "  Hugh  Poulett  gave  to  the  church 
one  of  the  glass  windows  of  the  Barlinch,  with  the 
iron  and  stone  and  all  the  price  "  for  setting  it  up.^ 

To  understand  the  working  of  the  pre- Reformation 
parish,  it  is  necessary  to  enter  in  detail  into  some  one 
of  the  accounts  that  are  still  preserved  to  us.  We  may 
conveniently  take  those  of  Leverton  in  Lincolnshire, 
printed  in  the  Archceologia,  which  commence  in  the 
year  1492.  It  is  well  to  note,  however,  that  the  same 
story  of  self-help  and  the  same  evidence  of  a  spirit  of 
affection  for  the  parish  church  and  its  services,  is  mani- 
fested in  every  account  of  this  kind  we  possess.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  it  was  popular  government 
in  a  true  sense  that  then  regulated  all  parochial  matters. 
Every  adult  of  both  sexes  had  a  voice  in  this  system  of 
self-government,  and  what  cannot  fail  to  strike  the 
student  of  these  records  is  that,  in  the  management  of 
the  fabric,  in  the  arrangements  for  the  services,  and  all 
things  necessary  for  the  due  performance  of  these,  dio- 
cesan authorities  evidently  left  to  the  parish  itself  a  wise 
discretion.  No  doubt  the  higher  ecclesiastical  officials 
could  interfere  in  theory,  but  in  practice  such  interfer- 
ence was  rare.  If  the  means  necessary  to  carry  out 
repairs  and  keep  the  church  in  an  efficient  state,  both 

'  Churchwardeiis'  Accotints  (Somerset  Record  Soc),  ed.  Bishop  Hobhouse, 
p.  200,  seqq. 


340      THE  EVE   OF  THE  REFORMATION 

as  to  fabric  and  ornaments,  were  apparently  never 
wanting,  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  was  then 
regarded  as  a  solemn  duty  binding  on  the  conscience  of 
each  parishioner  to  maintain  the  House  of  God  and  the 
parochial  services.  Bishop  Hobhouse,  from  an  exami- 
nation of  the  churchwardens'  accounts  for  some  parishes 
in  Somerset,  is  able  to  describe  the  various  ways  in 
which  the  parochial  exchequer  was  replenished.  First, 
there  were  the  voluntary  rates,  called  "  setts,"  and  these, 
though  voluntary  in  the  sense  that  their  imposition 
depended  on  the  will  of  the  people  at  large,  when 
once  the  parish  had  declared  for  the  rate,  all  were 
bound  to  pay.  Then  the  mediaeval  church  authorities 
cultivated  various  methods  of  eliciting  the  goodwill 
of  the  people,  and  after  prohibiting  work  on  Sundays 
and  certain  festivals,  busied  themselves  with  the  finding 
of  amusements.  Amongst  these  were  the  parish  feasts 
and  church  ales,  at  which  collections  for  various  public 
purposes  were  made,  which,  together  with  the  profits 
made  from  such  entertainments  by  those  who  managed 
them  for  the  benefit  of  the  public  purse,  formed  one  of 
the  chief  sources  of  parochial  income.  Beyond  this, 
the  principle  of  association  was  thoroughly  understood 
and  carried  out  in  practice  in  the  village  and  town  com- 
munities. People  banded  themselves  together  in  reli- 
gious guilds  and  societies,  the  raison  d'etre  of  which  was 
the  maintenance  of  special  decorations  at  special  altars, 
the  support  of  lamps  and  lights,  or  the  keeping  of  obits 
and  festivals.  These  societies,  moreover,  became  the 
centres  of  organisation  of  any  needed  special  collections, 
and  from  their  funds,  or  "  stores  "  as  they  were  called, 
they  contributed  to  the  general  expenses  of  maintaining 
the  fabric  and  the  services.     Popular  bounty  was,  more- 


PARISH   LIFE   IN   CATHOLIC   ENGLAND      341 

over,  elicited  by  means  of  the  "  bede-roll,"  or  list  of 
public  benefactors,  for  whom  the  prayers  of  the  parish- 
ioners were  asked  in  the  church  on  great  festivals. 
On  this  list  of  honour,  all — even  the  poorest — were 
anxious  that  their  names  should  appear,  and  that  their 
memory  be  kept  and  their  souls  prayed  for  in  the  House 
of  God  which  they  had  loved  in  life.  Even  more  than 
money,  which  in  those  days,  especially  in  out-of-the- 
way  places,  was  not  over  plentiful,  the  churchwardens' 
accounts  show  that  specific  gifts  of  all  kinds,  either  to 
be  sold  for  the  profit  of  the  purpose  for  which  they 
were  bestowed,  or  to  form  a  permanent  part  of  the 
church  treasury,  were  common  in  pre-Reformation  times. 
Added  to  these  sources  of  income  were  the  profits 
of  trade  carried  on  in  the  *'  church  house."  Besides  the 
church  itself,  the  wardens'  accounts  testify  to  the  exist- 
ence of  a  church  house,  if  not  as  a  universal  feature  in 
mediaeval  parish  life,  at  least  as  a  very  common  one. 
It  was  the  parish  club-house — the  centre  of  parochial 
life  and  local  self-government  ;  the  place  where  the 
community  would  assemble  for  business  and  pleasure. 
It  was  thus  the  focus  of  all  the  social  life  of  the  parish, 
and  the  system  was  extending  in  influence  and  utility  up 
to  the  eve  of  the  great  religious  changes  which  put  an 
end  to  the  popular  side  of  parochial  life.  At  Tintinhull, 
a  small  village  in  Somerset,  for  example,  the  accounts 
help  us  to  trace  the  growth  of  this  parish  club-house. 
Beginning  as  a  place  for  making  the  altar  bread,  it 
developed  into  a  bakery  for  the  supply  of  the  com- 
munity. It  then  took  up  the  brewing  of  beer  to  supply 
the  people  and  the  church  ales  and  similar  parish  festi- 
vals. This  soon  grew  into  the  brewing  of  beer  to  supply 
those  who  required  a  supply,  and  at  the  same  time  the 


342      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

oven  and  brewing  utensils  were  let  out  to  hire  to  private 
persons.  In  the  reign  of  Henry  VII.  a  house  was  bought 
by  the  wardens  for  parish  purposes,  and  one  Agnes  Cook 
was  placed  in  it  to  manage  it  for  the  common  benefit. 
In  1533  it  was  in  full  swing  as  a  parish  club-house, 
used  for  business  and  plesaure.^  The  "  ale  " — the 
forerunner  of  the  wardens'  "  charity  dinner  " — was  the 
ordinary  way  of  raising  money  to  meet  extraordinary 
expenses  ;  and  as  an  incidental  accompaniment  came 
invitations  to  other  parishes  in  the  neighbourhood,  and 
we  find  items  charged  for  the  expenses  of  church- 
wardens attending  at  other  parochial  feasts,  and  the 
sums  they  there  put  into  the  collection  plate. 

Beyond  this,  the  parish,  as  a  corporate  body  gene- 
rally, if  not  invariably,  possessed  property  in  land  and 
houses,  which  was  administered  by  the  people's  wardens 
for  the  public  good.  The  annual  proceeds  lightened  . 
the  common  burdens,  as  indeed  it  was  intended  that 
they  should.  A  further  source  of  occasional  income 
was  found  in  the  parish  plays  which  were  managed  for 
the  common  profit.  Very  frequently  the  production 
was  entrusted  to  some  local  guild,  and  the  expenses  of 
mounting  were  advanced  by  the  parochial  authorities, 
who  not  infrequently  had  amongst  the  church  treasures 
the  dress  and  other  stage  properties  necessary  for  the 
proper  productions.  At  Tintinhull,  in  Somerset,  for 
instance,  in  145 1,  five  parishioners  got  up  a  Christmas 
play  for  the  benefit  of  the  fund  required  for  the  erection 
of  the  new  rood  loft.  At  Morebath  there  was  an  Easter 
play  representing  the  Resurrection  of  our  Lord,  to 
defray  the  expenses  incurred  by  the  parish  on  some 
extensive  repairs.^ 

1  Ibid.,  p.  xxi.  -  Ibid.,  p.  xii. 


PARISH   LIFE   IN   CATHOLIC  ENGLAND      343 

With  this   general    notion  of   the  working  of    pre- 
Reformation    parochial    accounts,    we    are    now    in    a 
position  to  turn  by  way  of  a  particular  example  to  those 
of  Leverton.    The  village  is  situated  about  six  miles  from 
Boston.     The  church,  until  the  neglect  of  the  past  three 
hundred  years  had  disfigured  it,  must  have  been  very 
beautiful   when   decked   with   the    furniture    and   orna- 
ments   which    the    loving    care    of    the    people    of  the 
neighbourhood   had  collected  within   its  walls.     When 
first  the  accounts  open  in  1492,  the  parish  was  begin- 
ning to  be  interested,  as  indeed,  by  the  way,  so  many 
parishes  were  at  this  period,  in  the  setting  up  of  a  new 
peal  of  bells.     The  people  had  evidently  made  a  great 
effort  to  get    these,   and    they  contributed  most  gene- 
rously.     The  rector  promised  ten  shillings  and  sixpence 
—which  sum,  by  the  way,  some  one  paid  for  him — but 
the  whole  arrangement  for  the  purchase  and  hanging 
of  the  bells   was  in  the   hands  of  the  churchwardens. 
The  bell  chamber  was  mended  and  timber  was  bought 
to  strengthen  the  framework.      When   this  was  ready, 
the  great  bell  was  brought  over  from  the  neighbouring 
town,  and  money  is  disbursed  for  the  carriage  and  the 
team  of  horses,  not  forgetting  a  penny  for  the  toll  in 
crossing   a   bridge.     One  William  Wright  of  Benington 
came  over  professionally   to  superintend   the   hanging 
and  "trossyng"  of  this   great  service  bell.     We  may 
judge,  however,  that  it  was  not  altogether  satisfactory, 
for  in  1498  the  two  wardens  made  a  "  move"  to  "the 
gathering  of  the  township  of  Leverton  in  the  kirk,"  in 
which  they  collected  £^,  13s.  od.,  and  they  forthwith 
commenced  again  the  building  of  a  steeple  for  another 
set  of  bells.     The  stone  was   given  to  them,  but  they 
had  to  see  to  the  work  of  quarrying  it,  and  to  all  the 


344      THE   EVE   OF  THE   REFORMATION 

business  of  collecting  material  and  of  building.  Trees 
in  a  neighbouring  wood  were  bought,  were  cut  and 
carried,  and  sawn  into  beams  and  boards,  and  poles 
were  selected  for  scaffolding.  Lime  was  burnt  and 
sand  was  dug  for  the  mortar,  and  tubs  were  purchased 
to  mix  it  in,  whilst  Wreth,  the  carpenter,  was  retained 
to  look  after  the  building  in  general,  and  the  timber- 
work  of  the  new  belfry  in  particular. 

This  seems  to  have  exhausted  the  parish  exchequer 
for  a  year  or  two,  but  in  1503  the  two  wardens  attended 
at  Boston  to  see  their  bell  "  shot,"  and  to  provide  for 
its  transport  to  Leverton.  Here  Richard  Messur,  the 
local  blacksmith,  had  prepared  the  necessary  bolts  and 
locks  to  fasten  it  to  the  swinging  beam,  and  he  was  in 
attendance  professionally  to  see  the  bell  hung,  with 
John  Red,  the  bellmaker  of  Boston,  who,  moreover, 
remained  for  a  time  to  teach  the  parish  men  how  to 
ring  a  peal  upon  their  new  bells. 

As  the  sixteenth  century  progressed,  a  great  deal 
of  building  and  repairs  was  undertaken  by  the  parish 
authorities.  In  1503,  a  new  font  was  ordered,  and  a 
deputation  went  to  Frieston,  about  three  miles  from 
Leverton,  to  inspect  and  pass  the  work.  The  lead  for 
the  lining  was  procured,  and  it  was  cast  on  the  spot. 
In  1 5 17,  repairs  on  the  north  side  of  the  church  were 
undertaken,  and  these  must  have  been  extensive,  judg- 
ing from  the  cost  of  the  timber  employed  to  shore  up 
the  walls  during  the  progress  of  the  work.  Two  years 
later,  on  the  completion  of  these  extensive  building 
operations,  which  had  been  going  on  for  some  time, 
the  church  and  churchyard  were  consecrated  at  a  cost 
to  the  public  purse  of  -£3.  In  1526,  the  rood  loft  was 
decorated,  and  the  niches  intended  for  images  of  the 


PARISH   LIFE   IN   CATHOLIC  ENGLAND      345 

saints,  but  which  had  hitherto  been  vacant,  were  filled. 
One  of  the  parishioners,  William  Prankish,  in  that  year 
left  a  legacy  of  46s.  8d.  for  the  purpose.  The  wardens 
hired  a  man,  called  sometimes  "  the  alabaster  man,"  and 
sometimes  "  Robert  Brook  the  carver,"  and  in  earnest  for 
the  seventeen  images  of  alabaster  of  the  rood  loft  they 
gave  him  a  shilling.  At  the  same  time  a  collection  was 
made  for  the  support  of  the  artist  during  his  stay  ;  some 
of  the  parishioners  gave  money,  but  most  of  them  ap- 
parently contributed  "  cheese  "  for  his  use. 

So  much  with  regard  to  the  serious  building  opera- 
tions which  were  continued  up  to  the  very  eve  of  the  Re- 
formation. They  by  no  means  occupied  all  the  energies 
of  the  parish  officials.  If  the  books  required  binding,  a 
travelling  workman  was  engaged  on  the  job,  and  leather, 
thread,  wax,  and  other  necessary  materials  were  pur- 
chased for  the  work  ;  the  binder's  wife  was  paid  extra 
for  stitching,  and  he  was  apparently  lodged  by  one  of 
the  townspeople  as  a  contribution  to  the  common  work. 
Then  there  were  vestments  to  be  procured,  and  surplices 
and  other  church  linen  to  be  made,  washed,  and  marked  ; 
the  very  marks,  by  the  way,  being  given  in  the  accounts. 
So  entirely  was  the  whole  regarded  as  the  work  of  the 
people,  that  just  as  we  have  seen  how  the  parish  paid  for 
the  consecration  of  their  parish  church  and  graveyard, 
so  did  they  pay  a  fee  to  their  own  vicar  for  blessing 
the  altar  linen  and  the  new  vestments,  and  entering 
the  names  of  benefactors  on  the  parish  bede-roll.^ 

Details  such  as  these,  which  might  be  multiplied  to 
any  extent,  make  it  abundantly  clear  that  the  church 
was  the  centre  and  soul  of  village  life  in  pre-Reforma- 
tion  times,  and  that  up  to  the  very  eve  of  the  religious 

1  Arcluvologia,  vol.  xli.,  p.  333  seqq. 


346      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

revolution  it  had  not  lost  its  place  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people.  In  this  connection  it  is  useful  to  bear  in  mind, 
though  somewhat  difficult  to  realise,  inasmuch  as  it  is 
now  too  foreign  to  our  modern  experience,  that  in  the 
period  about  which  we  are  concerned  the  "  parish " 
meant  the  whole  community  of  a  well-defined  area 
"  organised  for  church  purposes  and  subject  to  church 
authority."  In  such  a  district,  writes  Bishop  Hobhouse, 
"  every  resident  was  a  parishioner,  and,  as  such,  owed  his 
duty  of  confession  and  submission  to  the  official  guid- 
ance of  a  stated  pastor.  There  was  no  choice  allowed. 
The  community  was  completely  organised  with  a  con- 
stitution which  recognised  the  rights  of  the  whole  and 
of  every  adult  member  to  a  voice  of  self-government 
when  assembled  for  consultation  under "  their  parish 
priest.^  In  this  way  the  church  was  the  centre  of  all 
parish  life,  in  a  way  now  almost  inconceivable.  "  From 
the  font  to  the  grave,"  says  an  authority  on  village  life  at 
this  time,  "  the  greater  number  of  the  people  lived 
within  the  sound  of  its  bells.  It  provided  them  with 
all  the  consolations  of  religion,  and  hnked  itself  with 
such  amusements  as  it  did  not  directly  supply."  - 

The  writer  of  the  above  words  was  specially  inter- 
ested in  the  accounts  of  the  parish  of  St.  Dunstan  in  the 
city  of  Canterbury,  and  some  few  notes  on  those  ac- 
counts founded  upon  his  preface  may  usefully  be  added 
to  what  has  already  been  said.  The  parochial  authori- 
ties evidently  were  possessed  of  considerable  power 
either  by  custom  or  consent  over  the  inhabitants.  In 
St.   Dunstan's,    for    example,    somewhere    about    1485, 


1  Somerset  Record  Sue,  preface,  p.  xi. 

-  J.  W.  Cowper,  Accoiaits  of  the  Chiirchwardeiis  of  St.  DiuistaiUs,  Canter- 
li7iry  {Archieologia  Cantiana,  18S5). 


PARISH    LIFE   IN   CATHOLIC  ENGLAND      347 

there  was  some  disagreement  between  a  man  named 
Baker  and  the  parish,  and  an  item  of  2 id.  appears 
in  the  accounts  as  spent  on  the  arbitration  that  settled 
it.  Later  on,  two  families  fell  out,  and  the  vicar  and  a 
jury  of  four  parishioners  met  in  council  to  put  an  end 
to  what  was  considered  a  scandal.  A  parish  so  managed 
had  necessarily  some  place  in  which  the  inhabitants  of 
the  district  could  meet,  and  this  in  St.  Dunstan's  is  called 
the  church  house,  and  sometimes  the  parish  house.  It  is 
frequently  mentioned  in  the  matters  of  repairs,  &c.,  and 
two  dozen  trenchers  and  spoons,  the  property  of  the 
parish,  were  placed  there  for  use  at  the  common  feasts, 
and  for  preparation  of  food  distributed  to  the  poor. 
The  annual  dinner  is  named  in  the  accounts,  and  there 
is  no  doubt  the  young  people  too  had  dancing,  bowling, 
and  other  games,  while  "  the  ancients  sat  gravely  by." 

The  money  needed  for  the  repairs  of  the  fabric  and 
for  parish  work  generally  was  here  collected  by  the 
various  brotherhoods  connected  with  the  church. 
Some  wore  "  scutchons  "  or  badges  to  show  that  they 
were  authorised  to  beg.  These  brotherhoods  were 
possessed  of  more  than  money ;  malt,  wheat,  barley, 
besides  parish  sheep  and  parish  cows  let  out  to  the 
highest  bidder,  are  mentioned  in  the  accounts  as  belong- 
ing to  them.  One  Nicholas  Reugge,  for  example,  left 
four  cows  to  the  people  of  the  parish  to  free  them 
for  ever  from  the  cost  of  supplying  the  "  paschal,"  or 
great  Easter  candle.  These  four  cows  were  valued  by 
the  churchwardens  at  los.  apiece,  and  were  each  let  at 
a  rent  of  2s.  a  year.  In  1521,  one  John  Richardson 
rented  five-and-twenty  of  the  parish  sheep,  and  the 
wardens  received  rent  of  lambs,  wool,  &c.  The  chief 
of  the  brotherhoods  connected  with  St.  Dunstan's  was 


348      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

that  named  the  "  Schaft,"  and  it  had  the  principal  voice 
in  the  ultimate  management  of  parochial  affairs.  Besides 
this,  however,  there  were  many  other  associations,  such 
as  that  of  St.  Anne  for  women  and  that  of  St.  John  for 
youths,  and  various  wardens  were  appointed  to  collect 
the  money  necessary  to  keep  the  various  lights,  such  as 
St.  Anne's  light,  St.  John's  light,  St.  Katherine's  light, 
and  the  light  of  the  Holy  Rood.  "  These  things,"  writes 
the  editor  of  these  interesting  accounts,  "  all  go  to  show 
what  life  and  activity  there  was  in  this  little  parish,  which 
never  wanted  willing  men  to  devote  their  time  and  in- 
fluence to  the  management  of  their  own  affairs." 

The  parish  was  small,  numbering  perhaps  hardly 
more  than  400  souls.  "  But  if  small,"  says  the  same 
authority,  "  it  was  thoroughly  efficient,  and  the  religious 
and  intellectual  work  was  as  actively  carried  on  as  the 
social."  At  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  the 
church  possessed  a  library  of  some  fifty  volumes.  Of 
these  about  a  dozen  were  religious  plays,  part,  no 
doubt,  of  the  Corpus  Christi  mystery  plays,  which  were 
carried  out  at  St.  Dunstan's  with  undiminished  splen- 
dour till  the  advent  of  the  new  ideas  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  VI. 

These  parish  accounts  prove  that  many  cases  of 
disagreement  and  misunderstanding,  which  in  modern 
times  would  most  likely  lead  to  long  and  protracted 
cases  in  the  Law  Courts,  were  not  infrequently  settled 
by  arbitration,  or  by  means  of  a  parish  meeting  or  a 
jury  of  neighbours.  Sometimes,  undoubtedly,  the  law 
had  to  be  invoked  in  defence  of  parochial  rights,  A 
case  in  point  is  afforded  in  the  accounts  of  St.  Dun- 
stan's, Canterbury.  Nicholas  Reugge,  as  we  have  said 
above,   had   left   money  to   purchase   four   cows   as    an 


PARISH   LIFE   IN   CATHOLIC   ENGLAND      349 

endowment  for  the  Paschal  candle  and  the  Font  taper. 
Things  went  well,  apparently,  till  i486,  when  William 
Belser,  who  rented  the  stock,  died,  and  his  executors 
either  could  not  or  would  not,  or,  at  any  rate,  did  not  pay. 
To  recover  the  common  property,  the  churchwardens,  as 
trustees  for  the  parish,  had  to  commence  a  suit  at  law. 
Chief-Justice  Fineux  and  Mr.  Attorney-General  John 
Roper  were  two  of  the  parishioners,  and  the  parish 
had  their  advice,  it  may  be  presumed  gratuitously. 
The  case,  however,  seems  to  have  dragged  on  for 
five  years,  as  it  was  finally  settled  only  in  1491,  when 
the  parish  scored  a  pyrrhic  victory,  for  although  they 
recovered  30s.,  the  value  of  three  of  the  cows,  their 
costs  had  mounted  up  to  35s.  2d.,  and  as  they  never 
could  get  more  than  a  third  of  that  amount  from  the 
defendants,  on  the  whole  they  were  out  of  pocket  by 
their  adventure  with  the  law. 

For  the  most  part,  however,  the  parish  settled  its 
own  difficulties  in  its  own  way.  Documents  preserved 
almost  by  chance  clearly  show  that  a  vast  number 
of  small  cases — police  cases  we  should  call  them — 
were  in  pre-Reformation  days  arranged  by  the  ecclesi- 
astical authority.  Disputes,  brawls,  libels,  minor  im- 
moralities, and  the  like,  which  nowadays  would  have 
to  be  dealt  with  by  the  local  justices  of  the  peace  or 
by  the  magistrates  at  quarter  sessions,  or  even  by  the 
judges  at  assizes,  were  disposed  of  by  the  parson  and 
the  parish.  It  may  not  have  been  an  ideal  system,  but 
it  was  patriarchal  and  expeditious.  The  Sunday  pulpit 
was  used  not  only  for  religious  instruction,  properly 
so  called,  and  for  the  "  bedes-bidding,"  but  for  the  pub- 
lication of  an  endless  variety  of  notices  of  common 
interest.       The    church    was,    as    we     have     said,    the 


350      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

centre  of  popular  life,  and  it  was  under  these  cir- 
cumstances the  natural  place  for  the  proclamation  of 
the  commencement  of  some  inquiry  into  a  local  suit, 
or  one  in  which  local  people  were  concerned.  It  was 
here,  in  the  house  of  God,  and  at  the  Sunday  service 
at  which  all  were  bound  to  be  present,  that  witnesses 
were  cited  and  accused  persons  warned  of  proceedings 
against  them.  Here  was  made  the  declaration  of  the 
probate  of  wills  of  deceased  persons,  and  warning  given 
to  claimants  against  the  estate  to  come  forward  and 
substantiate  their  demands.  Here,  too,  were  issued 
proclamations  against  such  as  did  not  pay  their  just 
debts  or  detained  the  goods  of  others  ;  here  those  who 
had  been  guilty  of  defamation  of  character  were  ordered 
to  restore  the  good  name  of  those  they  had  calum- 
niated ;  and  those  who,  having  been  joined  in  wedlock, 
had  separated  without  just  and  approved  cause,  were 
warned  of  the  obligations  of  Christian  marriage.  The 
transactions  of  business  of  this  kind  in  the  parish  church 
by  the  parish  officials  made  God's  house  a  practical 
reality  and  God's  law  a  practical  code  in  the  ordinary 
affairs  of  life,  and  gave  religion  a  living  importance 
in  the  daily  lives  of  every  member  of  every  parish 
throughout  the  country. 


CHAPTER   XI 

PRE-REFORMATION    GUILD    LIFE 

It  would  be  impossible  to  fully  understand  the  con- 
ditions of  life  on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation  without 
some  knowledge  of  the  working  and  purposes  of 
mediccval  guilds.  These  societies  or  brotherhoods 
were  so  common,  formed  such  a  real  bond  of  union 
between  people  of  all  ranks  and  conditions  of  life,  and 
fulfilled  so  many  useful  and  even  necessary  purposes 
before  their  suppression  under  Edward  VI.,  that  a  study 
of  their  principles  of  organisation  and  of  their  practical 
working  cannot  but  throw  considerable  light  on  the 
popular  social  life  of  the  period.  To  appreciate  the 
position,  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  the  very  real 
hold  the  Gospel  principles  of  the  Christian  brotherhood 
had  over  the  minds  of  all  in  pre-Reformation  days,  the 
extinction  of  the  general  sense  that  man  did  not  stand 
alone  being  distinctly  traceable  to  the  tendencies  in  re- 
gard to  social  matters  evolved  during  the  period  of 
turmoil  initiated  by  the  religious  teachings  of  the  Re- 
formers. What  M.  Simeon  Luce  says  about  the  spirit 
of  common  life  existing  in  the  villages  of  Normandy  in 
the  fourteenth  century  might  be  adopted  as  a  picture  of 
English  life  in  the  fifteenth  and  early  sixteenth  centuries. 
"  Nobles,  priests,  religious  clerks,  sons  of  the  soil  who 
laboured  at  various  manual  works,"  he  writes,  "  lived 
then,  so  to  say,  in  common,  and  they  are  found  con- 


352       THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

tinually  together  in  all  their  daily  occupations.  So 
far  from  this  community  of  occupations,  this  familiar 
daily  intercourse,  being  incompatible  with  the  great 
inequality  of  conditions  which  then  existed,  in  reality 
it  resulted  from  it.  It  was  where  no  strict  line  of  de- 
marcation divided  the  various  classes  that  they  ordinarily 
affected  to  keep  at  a  distance  one  from  the  other." ^ 

There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
teaching  of  the  English  Church  in  regard  to  the  rela- 
tion which,  according  to  true  Christian  principles, 
should  exist  between  all  classes  of  society.  In  par- 
ticular is  this  seen  in  all  that  pertained  to  the  care  of 
the  poorer  members  of  the  Christian  family.  The 
evidence  appears  clear  and  unmistakable  enough  in 
pre-Reformation  popular  sermons  and  instructions,  in 
formal  pronouncements  of  Bishops  and  Synods,  and  in 
books  intended  for  the  particular  teaching  of  clergy 
and  laity  in  the  necessary  duties  of  the  Christian 
man.  Whilst  fully  recognising  as  a  fact  that  in 
the  very  nature  of  things  there  must  ever  be  the 
class  of  those  who  "  have,"  and  the  class  of  those  who 
"  have  not,"  our  Catholic  forefathers  in  pre-Reformation 
days  knew  no  such  division  and  distinction  between  the 
rich  man  and  the  poor  man  as  obtained  later  on,  when 
pauperism,  as  distinct  from  poverty,  had  come  to  be  re- 
cognised as  an  inevitable  consequence  of  the  new  era.  To 
the  Christian  moralist,  and  even  to  the  bulk  of  Catholic 
Englishmen,  whether  secular  or  lay,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  those  who  had  been  blessed  by  God's  provi- 
dence with  worldly  wealth  were  regarded  not  so 
much  as  the  fortunate  possessors  of  personal  riches, 
their  own  to  do  with  what  they  listed,  and  upon  which 

1  Simeon  Luce,  Histcirc  de  Bertrand  du  Gucsdin,  p.  19. 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD  LIFE        353 

none  but  they  had  right  or  claim,  as  in  the  light  of 
stewards  of  God's  good  gifts  to  mankind  at  large, 
for  the  right  use  and  ministration  of  which  they  were 
accountable  to  Him  who  gave  them. 

Thus,  to  take  one  instance:  the  proceeds  of  ecclesias- 
tical benefices  were  recognised  in  the  Constitutions  of 
Legates  and  Archbishops  as  being  in  fact  as  well  as  in 
theory  the  eleemosynce  et  spes  paiiperum — the  alms  and 
the  hope  of  the  poor.  Those  ecclesiastics  who  con- 
sumed the  revenues  of  their  cures  on  other  than  neces- 
sary and  fitting  purposes  were  declared  to  be  "  defrauders 
of  the  rights  of  God's  poor,"  and  "  thieves  of  Christian 
alms  intended  for  them  ; "  whilst  the  English  canonists 
and  legal  professors  who  glossed  these  provisions  of  the 
Church  law  gravely  discussed  the  ways  in  which  the 
poor  of  a  parish  could  vindicate  their  right  to  their 
share  in  the  ecclesiastical  revenues  of  the  Church. 

This  "y«5  pauperum,"  which  is  set  forth  in  such  a 
text-book  of  English  Law  as  Lyndwood's  Provinciaky  is 
naturally  put  forth  more  clearly  and  forcibly  in  a 
work  intended  for  popular  instruction  such  as  Dives 
et  Pauper.  "To  them  that  have  the  benefices  and 
goods  of  Holy  Church,"  writes  the  author,  "  it  belonged 
principally  to  give  alms  and  to  have  the  cure  of  poor 
people."  To  him  who  squanders  the  alms  of  the 
altar  on  luxury  and  useless  show,  the  poor  may  justly 
point  and  say  :  "  It  is  ours  that  you  so  spend  in  pomp 
and  vanity  !  .  .  .  That  thou  keepest  for  thyself  of  the 
altar  passing  the  honest  needful  living,  it  is  raveny,  it 
is  theft,  it  is  sacrilege."  From  the  earliest  days  of 
English  Christianity  the  care  of  the  helpless  poor  was 
regarded  as  an  obligation  incumbent  on  all  ;  and  in 
1342,  Archbishop  Stratford,  dealing  with  appropriations , 

z 


354      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

or  the  assignment  of  ecclesiastical  revenues  to  the  sup- 
port of  some  religious  house  or  college,  ordered  that  a 
portion  of  the  tithe  should  always  be  set  apart  for  the 
relief  of  the  poor,  because,  as  Bishop  Stubbs  has 
pointed  out,  in  England,  from  the  days  of  King 
Ethelred,  "  a  third  part  of  the  tithe "  which  belonged 
to  the  Church  was  the  acknowledged  birthright  of  the 
poorer  members  of  Christ's  flock. 

That  there  was  social  inequality  is  as  certain  as  it  was 
inevitable,  for  that  is  in  the  very  constitution  of  human 
society.  But  this,  as  M.  Luce  has  pointed  out  in  regard 
to  France,  and  Professor  Janssens  in  regard  to  Germany, 
in  no  way  detracted  from  the  frank  and  full  acknow- 
ledgment of  the  Christian  brotherhood.  Again  and 
again  in  the  sermons  of  the  fifteenth  century  this  truth, 
with  all  its  practical  applications,  was  enforced  by  the 
priest  at  the  altar,  where  both  poor  and  rich  alike  met 
on  a  common  footing — "  all,  poor  and  rich,  high  and 
low,  noble  and  simple,  have  sprung  from  a  common 
stock  and  are  children  of  a  common  father,  Adam  : " 
"God  did  not  create  a  golden  Adam  from  whom  the 
nobles  are  descended,  nor  a  silver  Adam  from  whom 
have  come  the  rich,  and  another,  a  clay  Adam,  from 
whom  are  the  poor  ;  but  all,  nobles,  rich  and  poor, 
have  one  common  father,  made  out  of  the  dust  of  the 
earth."  These  and  similar  lessons  were  constantly  re- 
peated by  the  religious  teachers  of  the  pre-Reformation 
English  Church. 

Equally  definite  is  the  author  of  the  book  of  popular 
instruction.  Dives  et  Pauper,  above  referred  to.  The  sym- 
pathy of  the  writer  is  with  the  poor,  as  indeed  is  that  of 
every  ecclesiastical  writer  of  the  period.  In  fact,  it  is 
abundantly  clear  that  the  Church  of  England  in  Catholic 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD  LIFE        355 

days,  as  a  pia  mater,  was  ever  ready  to  open  wide  her 
heart  to  aid  and  protect  the  poorer  members  of  Christ's 
mystical  body.  This  is  how  Pauper  in  the  tract  in 
question  states  the  true  Christian  teaching  as  to  the 
duties  of  riches,  and  impresses  upon  his  readers  the 
view  that  the  owners  of  worldly  wealth  are  but  stewards 
of  the  Lord  :  "  All  that  the  rich  man  hath,  passing  his 
honest  living  after  the  degree  of  his  dispensation,  it  is 
other  men's,  not  his,  and  he  shall  give  full  hard  reckon- 
ing thereof  at  the  day  of  doom,  when  God  shall  say  to 
him,  '  Yield  account  of  your  bailywick.'  For  rich  men 
and  lords  in  this  world  are  God's  bailiffs  and  God's 
reeves,  to  ordain  for  the  poor  folk  and  to  sustain  them." 
Most  strongly  does  the  same  writer  insist  that  no 
property  gives  any  one  the  right  to  say  "  this  is  mine " 
and  that  is  "  thine,"  for  property,  so  far  as  it  is  of  God, 
is  of  the  nature  of  governance  and  dispensation,  by 
which  those  who,  by  God's  Providence  "  have,"  act 
as  His  stewards  and  the  dispensers  of  His  gifts  to  such 
as  "  have  not."  ^ 

It  would,  of  course,  be  affectation  to  suggest  that 

^  The  words  of  Pope  Leo  XIII,  as  to  the  Catholic  teaching  most  accurately 
describe  the  practical  doctrine  of  the  English  pre-Reformation  Church  on  this 
matter:  "The  chiefest  and  most  excellent  rule  for  the  right  use  of  money," 
he  says,  "rests  on  the  principle  that  it  is  one  thing  to  have  a  right  to  the 
possession  of  money  and  another  to  have  the  right  to  use  money  as  one 
pleases.  ...  If  the  question  be  asked,  How  must  one's  possessions  be  used  ? 
the  Church  replies,  without  hesitation,  in  the  words  of  the  same  holy  doctor 
(St.  Thomas),  A/an  should  not  consider  his  outward  possessions  as  his  own,  bttt 
as  covvnon  to  all,  so  as  to  share  them  without  difficulty  when  others  are  in  need. 
When  necessity  has  been  supplied  and  one's  position  fairly  considered,  it  is  a 
duty  to  give  to  the  indigent  out  of  that  which  is  over.  It  is  a  duty,  not  of 
justice  (except  in  extreme  cases)  but  of  Christian  charity  .  .  .  (and)  to  sum  up 
what  has  been  said,  Whoever  has  received  from  the  Divine  bounty  a  large 
share  of  blessings  .  .  .  has  received  them  for  the  purpose  of  using  them  for 
the  perfecting  of  his  own  nature,  and,  at  the  same  time,  that  he  may  employ 
them,  as  the  minister  of  God's  Providence,  for  the  benefit  of  others." 


356      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

poverty  and  great  hardness  of  life  were  not  to  be  found 
in  pre-Reformation  days,  but  what  did  not  exist  was 
pauperism,  which,  as  distinguished  from  poverty,  cer- 
tainly sprung  up  plentifully  amid  the  ruins  of  Catholic 
institutions,  overthrown  as  a  consequence — perhaps  as 
a  necessary  and  useful  consequence — of  the  religious 
changes  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Bishop  Stubbs, 
speaking  of  the  condition  of  the  poor  in  the  Middle 
Ages,  declares  that  "  there  is  very  little  evidence 
to  show  that  our  forefathers  in  the  middle  ranks  of 
life  desired  to  set  any  impassable  boundary  between 
class  and  class.  .  .  .  Even  the  villein,  by  learning  a 
craft,  might  set  his  foot  on  the  ladder  of  promotion. 
The  most  certain  way  to  rise  was  furnished  by  edu- 
cation, and  by  the  law  of  the  land,  '  every  man  or 
woman,  of  what  state  or  condition  that  he  be,  shall 
be  free  to  set  their  son  or  daughter  to  take  learning 
at  any  school  that  pleaseth  him  within  the  realm.' " 
Mr.  Thorold  Rogers,  than  whom  no  one  has  ever 
worked  so  diligently  at  the  economic  history  of  Eng- 
land, and  whom  none  can  suspect  of  undue  admiration 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  has  also  left  it  on  record  that 
during  the  century  and  a  half  which  preceded  the  era 
of  the  Reformation  the  mass  of  English  labourers  were 
thriving  under  their  guilds  and  trade  unions,  the 
peasants  were  gradually  acquiring  their  lands  and 
becoming  small  freeholders,  the  artisans  rising  to 
the  position  of  small  contractors  and  working  with 
their  own  hands  at  structures  which  their  native  genius 
and  experience  had  planned.  In  a  word,  according  to 
this  high  authority,  the  last  years  of  undivided  Catholic 
England  formed  "  the  golden  age  "  of  the  Englishman 
who  was  ready  and  willing  to  work. 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD  LIFE        357 

"  In  the  age  which  I  have  attempted  to  describe," 
writes  the  same  authority,  "  and  in  describing  which 
I  have  accumulated  and  condensed  a  vast  amount  of 
unquestionable  facts,  the  rate  of  production  was  small, 
the  conditions  of  health  unsatisfactory,  and  the  dura- 
tion of  life  short.  But,  on  the  whole,  there  were  none 
of  those  extremes  of  poverty  and  wealth  which  have 
excited  the  astonishment  of  philanthropists  and  are 
exciting  the  indignation  of  workmen.  The  age,  it  is 
true,  had  its  discontents,  and  these  discontents  were 
expressed  forcibly  and  in  a  startling  manner.  But  of 
poverty  which  perishes  unheeded,  of  a  willingness  to 
do  honest  work  and  a  lack  of  opportunity  there  was 
little  or  none.  The  essence  of  life  in  England  during 
the  days  of  the  Plantagenets  and  Tudors  was  that  every 
one  knew  his  neighbour,  and  that  every  one  was  his 
brother's  keeper."  ^ 

In  regard  to  the  general  care  of  the  poorer  brethren 
of  a  parish  in  pre-Reformation  England,  Bishop  Hob- 
house,  after  a  careful  examination  of  the  available 
sources  of  information,  writes  as  follows  :  "  I  can 
only  suppose  that  the  brotherhood  tie  was  so  strongly 
realised  by  the  community  that  the  weaker  ones  were 
succoured  by  the  stronger,  as  out  of  a  family  store. 
The  brotherhood  tie  was,  no  doubt,  very  much  stronger 
then,  when  the  village  community  was  from  generation 
to  generation  so  unalloyed  by  anything  foreign,  when 
all  were  knit  together  by  one  faith  and  one  worship 
and  close  kindred ;  but,  further  than  this,  the  guild 
fellowships  must  have  enhanced  all  the  other  bonds 
in  drawing  men  to  share  their  worldly  goods  as  a 
common  stock.     Covertly,  if  not  overtly,  the  guildsman 

^  The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History,  p.  63. 


358      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

bound  himself  to  help  his  needy  brother  in  sickness  and 
age,  as  he  expected  his  fellow-guildsman  to  do  for  him 
in  his  turn  of  need,  and  these  bonds,  added  to  a  far 
stronger  sense  of  the  duty  of  children  towards  aged 
parents  than  is  now  found,  did,  I  conceive,  suffice  for 
the  relief  of  the  poor,  aided  only  by  the  direct  alms- 
giving which  flowed  from  the  parsonage  house,  or  in 
favoured  localities  from  the  doles  or  broken  meat  of  a 
monastery."  ^ 

To  reheve  the  Reformation  from  the  odious  charge 
that  it  was  responsible  for  the  poor-laws,  many  authors 
have  declared  that  not  only  did  poverty  largely  exist 
before,  say,  the  dissolution  of  the  monastic  houses,  but 
that  it  would  not  long  have  been  possible  for  the 
ancient  methods  of  relieving  the  distressed  to  cope 
with  the  increase  in  their  numbers  under  the  changed 
circumstances  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  is  of  course 
possible  to  deal  with  broad  assertions  only  by  the  pro- 
duction of  a  mass  of  details,  which  is,  under  the  present 
circumstances,  out  of  the  question,  or  by  assertions 
equally  broad,  and  I  remark  that  there  is  no  evidence 
of  any  change  of  circumstances,  so  far  as  such  changes 
appear  in  history,  which  could  not  have  been  fully  met 
by  the  application  of  the  old  principles,  and  met  in  a 
way  which  would  never  have  induced  the  degree  of 
distressing  pauperism  which,  in  fact,  was  produced  by 
the  application  of  the  social  principles  adopted  at  the 
Reformation.  The  underlying  idea  of  these  latter  was 
property  in  the  sense  of  absolute  ownership  in  place  of 
the  older  and  more  Christian  idea  of  property  in  the 
sense  of  stewardship. 

Most    certainly    the    result    was   not    calculated    to 

^  Churchzvardciis'  Accounts  (Somerset  Record  Soc),  P-  xxiv. 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD  LIFE        359 

improve  the  condition  of  the  poorer  members  of  the 
community.  It  was  they  who  were  made  to  pay, 
whilst  their  betters  pocketed  the  price.  The  well-to-do 
classes,  in  the  process,  became  richer  and  more  pros- 
perous, whilst  the  "  masses  "  became,  as  an  old  writer 
has  it,  "mere  stark  beggars."  As  a  fact,  moreover, 
poverty  became  rampant,  as  we  should  have  expected, 
immediately  upon  the  great  confiscations  of  land  and 
other  property  at  the  dissolution  of  the  religious  houses. 
To  take  one  example  :  Dr.  Sharpe's  knowledge  of  the 
records  of  the  city  of  London  enables  him  to  say  that 
"  the  sudden  closing  of  these  institutions  caused  the 
streets  to  be  thronged  with  the  sick  and  poor." 

"The  devil,"  exclaims  a  preacher  who  lived  through 
all  these  troublous  times — "  the  devil  cunningly  turneth 
things  his  own  way."  "  Examples  of  this  we  have  seen 
in  our  time  more  than  I  can  have  leisure  to  express  or 
to  rehearse.  In  the  Acts  of  Parliament  that  we  have 
had  made  in  our  days  what  godly  preambles  hath  gone 
afore  the  same  ;  even  quasi  oraculum  Apollinis,  as  though 
the  things  that  follow  had  come  from  the  counsel  of  the 
highest  in  heaven  ;  and  yet  the  end  hath  been  either  to 
destroy  abbeys  or  chauntries  or  colleges,  or  such  like, 
by  the  which  some  have  gotten  much  land,  and  have 
been  made  men  of  great  possessions.  But  many  an 
honest  poor  man  hath  been  undone  by  it,  and  an  in- 
numerable multitude  hath  perished  for  default  and  lack 
of  sustenance.  And  this  misery  hath  long  continued, 
and  hath  not  yet  (1556)  an  end.  Moreover,  all  this 
commotion  and  fray  was  made  under  pretence  of  a 
conimon  profit  and  common  defence,  but  in  very  deed 
it  was  for  private  and  proper  lucre."  ^ 

^  Roger  Edgeworth,  Sermoiis,  London,  R.  Caly,  1557,  p.  309. 


360      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

In  the  sixty  years  that  followed  the  overthrow  of 
the  old  system,  it  was  necessary  for  Parliament  to  pass 
no  less  than  twelve  acts  dealing  with  the  relief  of  distress, 
the  necessity  for  which,  Thorold  Rogers  says,  ''  can  be 
traced  distinctly  back  to  the  crimes  of  rulers  and  agents." 
I  need  not  characterise  the  spirit  which  is  manifested  in 
these  acts,  where  poverty  and  crime  are  treated  as  in- 
distinguishable. 

Dr.  Jessop  writes  :  "  In  the  general  scramble  of  the 
Terror  under  Henry  the  Eighth,  and  of  the  anarchy  in 
the  days  of  Edward  the  Sixth  .  .  .  the  monasteries 
were  plundered  even  to  their  very  pots  and  pans.  The 
almshouses,  in  which  old  men  and  women  were  fed  and 
clothed,  were  robbed  to  the  last  pound,  the  poor  alms- 
folk  being  turned  out  in  the  cold  at  an  hour's  warning 
to  beg  their  bread.  The  splendid  hospitals  for  the 
sick  and  needy,  sometimes  magnificently  provided  with 
nurses  and  chaplains,  whose  very  raison  d'etre  was  that 
they  were  to  look  after  the  care  of  those  who  were  past 
caring  for  themselves,  these  were  stripped  of  all  their 
belongings,  the  inmates  sent  out  to  hobble  into  some 
convenient  dry  ditch  to  lie  down  and  die  in,  or  to  crawl 
into  some  barn  or  house,  there  to  be  tended,  not  with- 
out fear  of  consequences,  by  some  kindly  man  or 
woman,  who  could  not  bear  to  see  a  suffering  fellow- 
creature  drop  down  and  die  at  their  own  doorposts."  ^ 

Intimately  connected  with  the  subject  of  the  care  of 
the  poor  in  pre-Reformation  days  is  obviously  that  of 
the  mediaeval  guilds  which,  more  than  anything  else, 
tended  to  foster  the  idea  of  the  Christian  brotherhood 
up  to  the  eve  of  the  religious  changes. 

1  Parish  Life  in  England  before  the  Great  Pillage  ("Nineteenth  Century," 
March  1898),  p.  432. 


PRE-REFORMATION   GUILD  LIFE        361 

It  would  probably  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that 
these  societies  existed  everywhere  throughout  the  coun- 
try in  equal  numbers.  Mr,  Thorold  Rogers,  it  is  true, 
says — and  the  opinion  of  one  who  has  done  so  much 
work  in  every  kind  of  local  record  must  carry  great 
weight — that  "  few  parishes  were  probably  without 
guild  lands."  But  there  is  certainly  no  distinct  evi- 
dence that  this  was  the  case,  especially  in  counties  say 
like  Hampshire,  always  sparsely  populated  as  compared 
with  other  districts  in  the  east  of  England,  and  where 
the  people  largely  depended  on  agricultural  pursuits  for 
a  living.  It  was  in  the  great  centres  of  trade  and  manu- 
facture that  the  guilds  were  most  numerous  and  most 
important,  for  it  was  precisely  in  those  parts  that  the 
advantages  of  mutual  help  and  co-operation  outside  the 
parish  bond  were  most  apparent  and  combination  was 
practically  possible. 

An  examination  of  the  existing  records  leads  to  a 
general  division  of  mediaeval  guilds  into  two  classes — 
Craft  or  Trade  associations,  and  Religious  or,  as  some 
prefer  now  to  call  them.  Social  guilds.  The  former, 
as  their  name  implies,  had,  as  the  special  object  of  their 
existence,  the  protection  of  some  work,  trade  or  handi- 
craft, and  in  this  for  practical  purposes  we  may  include 
those  associations  of  traders  or  merchants  known  under 
the  name  of  "  guild-merchants."  Such,  for  instance, 
were  the  great  companies  of  the  city  of  London,  and  it 
was  in  reality  under  the  plea  that  they  were  trading 
societies  that  they  were  saved  in  the  general  destruc- 
tion which  overtook  all  similar  fraternities  and  associa- 
tions in  the  sixteenth  century.  The  division  of  guilds 
into  the  two  classes  named  above  is,  however,  after  all 
more  a  matter  of  convenience  than  a  real  distinction 


362      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

founded  on  fact.  All  guilds,  no  matter  for  what  special 
purpose  they  were  founded,  had  the  same  general  char- 
acteristic of  brotherly  aid  and  social  charity  ;  and  no 
guild  was  divorced  from  the  ordinary  religious  observ- 
ances commonly  practised  by  all  such  bodies  in  those 
days. 

It  is  often  supposed  that,  for  the  most  part,  what 
are  called  religious  guilds  existed  for  the  purpose  of 
promoting  or  encouraging  the  religious  practices,  such 
as  the  attendance  at  church  on  certain  days,  the  taking 
part  in  ecclesiastical  processions,  the  recitations  of 
offices  and  prayers,  and  the  like.  Without  doubt,  there 
were  such  societies  in  pre-Reformation  days — such  as, 
for  example,  the  great  Guild  of  Corpus  Christi,  in  the 
city  of  York,  which  counted  its  members  by  thousands. 
But  such  associations  were  the  exception,  not  the  rule. 
An  examination  of  the  existing  statutes  and  regulations 
of  ancient  guilds  will  show  how  small  a  proportion  these 
purely  Ecclesiastical  guilds  formed  of  the  whole  number 
of  associations  known  as  Religious  guilds.  The  origin  of 
the  mistaken  notion  is  obvious.  In  mediaeval  days — 
that  is,  in  times  when  such  guilds  flourished — the  word 
"  religious  "  had  a  wider,  and  what  most  people  who 
reflect  will  be  inclined  to  think,  a  truer  signification 
than  has  obtained  in  later  times.  Religion  was  then 
understood  to  include  the  exercise  of  the  two  com- 
mandments of  charity — the  love  of  God  and  the  love 
of  one's  neighbour — and  the  exercises  of  practical 
charity  to  which  guild  brethren  were  bound  by  their 
guild  statutes  were  considered  as  much  religious  prac- 
tices as  attendance  at  church  or  the  taking  part  in  an 
ecclesiastical  procession.  In  these  days,  as  Mr.  Brentano 
in  his  essay  On  the  History  and  Development  of  Guilds  has 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD  LIFE        363 

pointed  out,  most  of  the  objects,  to  promote  which 
the  guilds  existed,  would  now  be  called  social  duties, 
but  they  were  then  regarded  as  true  objects  of  Christian 
charity.  Mutual  assistance,  the  aid  of  the  poor,  of 
the  helpless,  of  the  sick,  of  strangers,  of  pilgrims  and 
prisoners,  the  burial  of  the  dead,  even  the  keeping  of 
schools  and  schoolmasters,  and  other  such  like  works 
were  held  to  be  "  exercises  of  religion."  ^ 

If  the  word  "  religious "  be  thought  now  to  give  a 
wrong  impression  about  the  nature  of  associations,  the 
main  object  of  which  was  to  secure  the  performance  of 
duties  we  should  now  call  "  social,"  quite  as  false  an 
impression  would  be  conveyed  by  the  word  "  social "  as 
applied  to  them.  A  "  social "  society  would  inevitably 
suggest  to  many  in  these  days  an  association  for 
convivial  meetings,  and  this  false  notion  of  the  nature 
of  a  mediaeval  guild  would  be  further  strengthened  by 
the  fact  that  in  many,  if  not  most,  of  them  a  yearly,  and 
sometimes  a  more  frequent  feast  existed  under  an  item 
in  their  statutes.  This  guild  feast,  however,  was  a  mere 
incident  in  the  organisation,  and  in  no  case  did  it  form 
what  we  might  consider  the  end  or  purpose  of  the 
association. 

By  whichever  name  we  call  them,  and  assuming 
the  religious  basis  which  underlay  the  whole  social 
life  in  the  fifteenth  century,  the  character  and  pur- 
pose of  these  mediaeval  guilds  cannot  in  reality  be 
misunderstood.  Broadly  speaking,  they  were  the 
benefit  societies  and  the  provident  associations  of  the 
middle  ages.  They  undertook  towards  their  members 
the  duties  now  frequently  performed  by  burial  clubs, 
by  hospitals,  by  almshouses,  and  by  guardians  of  the 

English  Gilds  (Early  English  Text-Society),  pp.  Ixxx.-civ. 


364      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

poor.  Not  infrequently  they  acted  for  the  public  good 
of  the  community  in  the  mending  of  roads  and  the 
repair  of  bridges,  and  for  the  private  good  of  their 
members,  in  the  same  way  that  insurance  companies 
to-day  compensate  for  loss  by  fire  or  accident.  The 
very  reason  of  their  existence  was  the  affording  of 
mutual  aid  and  assistance  in  meeting  the  pecuniary 
demands  which  were  constantly  arising  from  burials, 
legal  exactions,  penal  fines  and  all  other  kinds  of  pay- 
ments and  compensations.  Mr.  Toulmin  Smith  thus 
defines  their  object:  "The  early  English  guild  was 
an  institution  of  local  self-help  which,  before  the  poor- 
laws  were  invented,  took  the  place  in  old  times  of  the 
modern  friendly  or  benefit  society,  but  with  a  higher 
aim  ;  while  it  joined  all  classes  together  in  the  care  of 
the  needy  and  for  objects  of  common  welfare,  it  did 
not  neglect  the  forms  and  practice  of  religion,  justice, 
and  morality,"  ^  which  I  may  add  was,  indeed,  the 
mainspring  of  their  life  and  action. 

"The  guild  lands,"  writes  Mr.  Thorold  Rogers, 
"  were  a  very  important  economical  fact  in  the  social 
condition  of  early  England.  The  guilds  were  the 
benefit  societies  of  the  time  from  which  impoverished 
members  could  be,  and  were,  aided.  It  was  an  age  in 
which  the  keeping  of  accounts  was  common  and 
familiar.  Beyond  question,  the  treasurers  of  the  village 
guild  rendered  as  accurate  an  annual  statement  of  their 
fraternity  as  a  bailiff  did  to  his  lord.  ...  It  is  quite 
certain  that  the  town  and  country  guilds  obviated 
pauperism  in  the  middle  ages,  assisted  in  steadying 
the  price  of  labour,  and  formed  a  permanent  centre 
for  those  associations  which  fulfilled  the  function  that 

1  Ibid.,  p.  xiv. 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD  LIFE        365 

in    more   recent   times   trades   unions   have   striven   to 
satisfy."' 

An  examination  of  the  various  articles  of  association 
contained   in  the  returns  made  into  the   Chancery   in 
1389,  and   other  similar  documents,  shows  how  wide 
was   the   field   of   Christian    charity   covered   by   these 
"  fraternities."      First  and  foremost  amongst  these  works 
of  religion  must  be  reckoned  the  burial  of  the  dead  ; 
regulations  as  to  which  are  invariably  to  be  found  in  all 
the  guild  statutes.     Then,  very  generally,  provisions  for 
help  to  the  poor,  sick,  and  aged.     In  some,  assistance 
was  to  be  given  to  those  who  were  overtaken  by  mis- 
fortune, whose  goods  had  been  damaged  or  destroyed 
by  fire  or  flood,    or  had   been  diminished  by   loss  or 
robbery  ;  in  others,  money  was  found  as  a  loan  to  such 
as    needed    temporary    assistance.       In    the    guild    at 
Ludlow,   in   Shropshire,  for    instance,    "  any   good   girl 
of  the  guild  had  a  dowry  provided  for  her  if  her  father 
was    too    poor    to    find    one    himself."       The    "guild- 
merchant  "    of    Coventry    kept    a    lodging-house    with 
thirteen  beds,  ''  to  lodge  poor  folk  coming  through  the 
land  on  pilgrimage  or  other  work  of  charity,"  with  a 
keeper  of  the  house  and  a  woman  to  wash  the  pilgrims' 
feet.        A    guild   at  York   found   beds  and   attendance 
for  poor   strangers,  and   the   guild  of    Holy   Cross    in 
Birmingham     kept     almshouses    for    the    poor    in    the 
town.     In   Hampshire,   the  guild   of  St.  John  at  Win- 
chester, which  comprised  men  and  women  of  all  sorts 
and  conditions,  supported  a  hospital  for  the  poor  and 
infirm  of  the  city. 

The  very  mass  of  material  at  hand  makes  the  task 
of  selecting  examples  for  illustrating  some  of  the  objects 

^   The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History,  p.  306. 


366      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

for  which  mediaeval  guilds  existed  somewhat  difficult. 
I  take  a  few  such  examples  at  haphazard.  The  organi- 
sation of  these  societies  was  the  same  as  that  which  has 
existed  in  similar  associations  up  to  the  time  of  our 
modern  trades  unions.  A  meeting  was  held  at  which 
officers  were  elected  and  accounts  audited  ;  fines  for 
non-acceptance  of  office  were  frequently  imposed,  as 
well  as  for  absence  from  the  common  meeting.  Often 
members  had  to  declare  on  oath  that  they  would  fulfil 
their  voluntary  obligations,  and  would  keep  secret  the 
affairs  of  the  society.  Persons  of  ill-repute  were  not 
admitted,  and  members  who  disgraced  the  fraternity 
were  expelled.  For  example,  the  first  guild  statutes 
printed  by  Mr.  Toulmin  Smith  are  those  of  Garlekhithe, 
London.  They  begin  :  "  In  worship  of  God  Almighty 
our  Creator  and  His  Mother  Saint  Mary,  and  all  Saints, 
and  St.  James  the  Apostle,  a  fraternity  is  begun  by  good 
men  in  the  Church  of  St.  James,  at  Garlekhith  in  Lon- 
don, on  the  day  of  Saint  James,  the  year  of  our  Lord 
1375,  for  the  amendment  of  their  lives  and  of  their 
souls,  and  to  nourish  greater  love  between  the  brethren 
and  sisters  of  the  said  brotherhood."  Each  of  them 
has  sworn  on  the  Book  to  perform  the  points  under- 
written. 

"  First :  all  those  that  are,  or  shall  be,  in  the  said 
brotherhood  shall  be  of  good  life,  condition,  and 
behaviour,  and  shall  love  God  and  Holy  Church  and 
their  neighbours,  as  Holy  Church  commands."  Then, 
after  various  provisions  as  to  meetings  and  payments  to 
be  made  to  the  general  funds,  the  statutes  order  that  "  if 
any  of  the  foresaid  brethren  fall  into  such  distress  that 
he  hath  nothing,  and  cannot,  on  account  of  old  age  or 
sickness,  help  himself,  if  he  has  been  in  the  brotherhood 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD  LIFE        367 

seven  years,  and  during  that  time  has  performed  all 
duties,  he  shall  have  every  week  after  from  the  common 
box  fourteen  pence  {i.e.  about  £1  2i  week  of  our  money) 
for  the  rest  of  his  life,  unless  he  recovers  from  his 
distress."  ^  In  one  form  or  other  this  provision  for  the 
assistance  of  needy  members  is  repeated  in  the  statutes 
of  almost  every  guild.  Some  provide  for  help  in  case 
of  distress  coming  "  through  any  chance,  through  fire 
or  water,  thieves  or  sickness,  or  any  other  haps."  Some, 
besides  granting  this  kind  of  aid,  add  :  "  and  if  so  befall 
that  he  be  young  enough  to  work,  and  he  fall  into  dis- 
tress, so  that  he  have  nothing  of  his  own  to  help  him- 
self with,  then  the  brethren  shall  help  him,  each  with  a 
portion  as  he  pleases  in  the  way  of  charity."  2  Others 
furnish  loans  from  the  common  fund  to  enable  brethren 
to  tide  over  temporary  difficulties  :  "  and  if  the  case 
falleth  that  any  of  the  brotherhood  have  need  to  borrow  a 
certain  sum  of  silver,  he  (can)  go  to  the  keepers  of  the 
box  and  take  what  he  hath  need  of,  so  that  the  sum  be 
not  so  large  that  any  one  may  not  be  helped  as  well  as 
another,  and  that  he  leave  a  sufficient  pledge,  or  else 
find  a  sufficient  security  among  the  brotherhood."  ^ 
Some,  again,  make  the  contributions  to  poor  brethren 
a  personal  obligation  on  the  members,  such  as  a  farthing 
a  week  from  each  of  the  brotherhood,  unless  the  distress 
has  been  caused  by  individual  folly  or  waste.  Others 
extend  their  Christian  charity  to  relieve  distress  beyond 
the  circle  of  the  brotherhood — that  is,  of  all  "  whoso- 
ever falls  into  distress,  poverty,  lameness,  blindness, 
sent  by  the  grace  of  God  to  them,  even  if  he  be  a  thief 
proven,  he  shall  have  seven  pence  a  week   from  the 

^  English  Gilds  (Early  English  Text-Society),  p.  3. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  6.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  8. 


368      THE   EVE   OF  THE  REFORMATION 

brothers  and  sisters  to  assist  him  in  his  need."  ^  Some 
of  the  guilds  in  seaside  districts  provide  for  help  in  case 
of  "  loss  through  the  sea,"  and  there  is  little  doubt  that 
in  mediaeval  days  the  great  work  carried  on  by  such  a 
body  as  the  Royal  Lifeboat  Society  would  have  been 
considered  a  work  of  religion,  and  the  fitting  object  of 
a  religious  guild. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  multiply  examples  of  the 
purposes  and  scope  of  the  old  fraternities,  and  it  is 
sufficient  to  repeat  that  there  was  hardly  any  kind  of 
social  service  which  in  some  form  or  other  was  not 
provided  for  by  these  voluntary  associations.  As  an 
illustration  of  the  working  of  a  trade  or  craft  guild,  we 
may  take  that  of  the  "  Pinners  "  of  the  city  of  London, 
the  register  of  which,  dating  from  A.D.  1464,  is  now  in 
the  British  Museum."  These  are  some  of  the  chief 
articles  approved  for  the  guild  by  the  Mayor  and  Cor- 
poration of  the  city  of  London  :  (i)  No  foreigner  to  be 
allowed  to  keep  a  shop  for  the  sale  of  pins.  (2)  No 
foreigner  to  take  to  the  making  of  pins  without  under- 
going previous  examinations  and  receiving  the  approval 
of  the  guild  officers.  (3)  No  master  to  receive  another 
master's  workman.  (4)  If  a  servant  or  workman  who 
has  served  his  master  faithfully  fall  sick  he  shall  be  kept 
by  the  craft.  (5)  Power  to  the  craft  to  expel  those 
who  do  ill  and  bring  discredit  upon  it.  (6)  Work  at 
the  craft  at  nights,  on  Saturdays,  and  on  the  eves  of 
feasts  is  strictly  prohibited.  (7)  Sunday  closing  is 
rigidly  enforced. 

It  is  curious  to  find,  four  hundred  years  ago,  so 
many  of  the  principles  set  down  as  established,  for 
which  in  our  days  trades  unions  and  similar  societies 

1  Ibid.,  p.  48.  2  Egeiton  MS.,  142. 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD  LIFE         369 

are  now  contending.  It  has  been  remarked  above,  that 
even  in  the  case  of  craft  guilds,  such  as  this  Society  of 
Pinners  undoubtedly  was,  many  of  the  ordinary  pur- 
poses of  the  religious  guilds  were  looked  to  equally 
with  the  more  obvious  object  of  protecting  the  special 
trade  or  handicraft  of  the  specific  society.  The  accounts 
of  this  Pinners'  Guild  fully  bear  out  this  view.  For 
example :  We  have  the  funeral  services  for  departed 
brethren,  and  the  usual  trentals,  or  thirty  masses,  for 
deceased  members.  Then  we  find  :  "  4d.  to  the  wax 
chandlers'  man  for  setting  up  of  our  lights  at  St.  James." 
One  of  the  members,  William  Clarke,  borrowed  5s.  lod. 
from  the  common  chest,  to  secure  which  he  placed  a 
gold  ring  in  pledge.  There  are  also  numerous  pay- 
ments for  singers  at  the  services  held  on  the  feast  days 
of  the  guild,  and  for  banners  and  other  hangings  for 
processions. 

Of  payments  for  the  specific  ends  of  the  guild 
there  are,  of  course,  plenty  of  examples.  For  instance  : 
spurious  pins  and  "  other  ware  "  are  searched  for  and 
burnt  by  the  craft  officers,  and  this  at  such  distances 
from  London  as  Salisbury  and  the  fair  at  Stourbridge, 
near  Cambridge,  the  great  market  for  East  Anglia  and 
the  centre  of  the  Flanders  trade.  "  William  Mitchell  is 
paid  8d.  for  pins  for  the  sisters,  on  Saint  James'  day." 
In  1466,  a  man  is  fined  2s.  for  setting  a  child  to 
work  before  he  had  been  fully  apprenticed  ;  and 
also  another  had  to  pay  2s.  for  working  after  seven 
o'clock  on  a  winter  night.  Later  on  in  the  accounts 
we  have  a  man  mulcted  for  keeping  a  shop  before  he 
was  a  "  freeman "  of  the  society,  and  another  "  for 
that  he  sold  Flaundres  pynnes  for  English  pynnes." 
At  another  time,  a  large  consignment  of  no  less  than 

2  A 


370      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

12,000  "  pynnes  of  ware"  were  forfeited  to  the  craft, 
and  sold  by  them  for  8s.,  which  went  to  the  common 
fund.  These  accounts  show  also  the  gradual  rise  in 
importance  and  prosperity  which  the  Pinners'  Guild, 
under  the  patronage  of  St.  James,  manifested.  At 
first,  the  warden  and  brethren  at  their  yearly  visit  to 
Westminster  were  content  to  hire  an  ordinary  barge 
upon  the  Thames,  but  after  a  few  years  they  had 
started  "  a  keverid  boote  "  of  their  own  at  the  cost  of 
half-a-crown,  in  place  of  the  sixpence  formerly  paid. 
So,  too,  in  the  early  days  of  their  incorporation  they 
had  their  annual  dinner  and  audited  their  accounts  at 
some  London  tavern  —  the  "  Mayremayde  in  Bread 
Street "  and  "  the  brew  house  atte  the  Sygne  of  the 
Rose  in  Old  Jury  "  are  two  of  the  places  named.  Later 
on  they  met  in  some  hall  belonging  to  another  guild, 
such  as  the  "Armourers'"  Hall,  and  later  still  they 
built  their  own  Guild  Hall  and  held  their  banquet  there. 
This  building  made  a  great  demand  upon  their  capital, 
and  the  officers  evidently  began  to  look  more  carefully 
after  the  exaction  of  fines.  For  late  working  at  this 
time  one  of  the  brethren  was  mulcted  in  the  sum  of 
twenty  pence  :  another  was  fined  twopence  for  coming 
late  to  the  guild  mass,  and  several  others  had  to  pay 
for  neglecting  to  attend  the  meeting.  From  the  period 
of  starting  their  own  hall,  ill-fortune  seems  to  have 
attended  the  society.  About  the  year  1499,  they  got 
involved  in  a  great  lawsuit  with  one  Thomas  Hill,  upon 
which  was  expended  a  large  sum  of  money.  A  special 
whip  was  made  to  meet  expenses  and  keep  up  the 
credit  of  the  guild  ;  for  what  with  counsel's  fees,  the 
writing  of  bills,  and  the  drawing  of  pleas,  the  general 
fund  was   unable  to   find  the    necessary   munitions  of 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD  LIFE        371 

war  to  continue  the  suit.  To  the  credit  of  the  members, 
most  of  them  apparently  responded  generously  to  this 
call,  and,  in  consequence  of  this  unfortunate  litigation, 
to  many  subsequent  demands  which  the  empty  ex- 
chequer necessitated. 

There  would  be  no  difficulty  whatever  in  multiplying 
the  foregoing  illustrations  of  the  working  of  these 
mediaeval  societies.  The  actual  account  books  of 
course  furnish  us  with  the  most  accurate  knowledge, 
even  to  minute  details,  and  any  one  of  them  would 
afford  ample  material. 

The  funds  at  the  disposal  of  the  guilds  were  derived 
chiefly  from  voluntary  subscriptions,  entrance  fees,  gifts, 
and  legacies  of  members.  Frequently  these  societies 
became  in  process  of  time  the  trustees  of  lands  and 
houses  which  they  either  held  and  administered  for  the 
purposes  of  the  guilds,  or  for  some  specific  purpose 
determined  by  the  will  of  the  original  donor.  Thus,  to 
take  one  or  two  examples  from  the  account  rolls  of  the 
Guild  of  Tailors  in  the  city  of  Winchester.  In  the  time 
of  King  Richard  II. — say  1392 — the  usual  entrance 
fee  for  members  was  3s.  4d.,  and  the  annual 
subscription  was  is.  There  were  106  members  at 
that  time,  seven  of  whom  had  been  enrolled  during 
the  previous  year.  Among  others  who  had  thus 
entered  was  one  Thomas  Warener,  or  Warner,  a 
cousin  of  Bishop  William  of  Wykeham,  and  the 
Bishop's  bailiff  of  the  Soke  ;  his  payment  was  4s.  8d. 
instead  of  the  usual  entrance  fee.  In  the  same  year  we 
find  the  names  of  Thomas  Hampton,  lord  of  the  manor 
of  Stoke  Charity,  and  Thomas  Marleburgh,  who  was 
afterwards  Mayor  of  Winchester.  In  the  following 
year,    seventeen  new  members  were   enrolled,   one   of 


372       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

them  being  a  baker  of  Southampton,  called  Dunster. 
Turning  over  these  accounts,  we  come  upon  examples 
of  presents  either  in  kind  or  money  made  to  the  society. 
Thus  in  one  place  Thomas  Marleburgh  makes  a  present 
of  a  hooded  garment  which  was  subsequently  sold  for 
eighteen  pence ;  and  in  another,  one  Maurice  John 
Cantelaw  presented  for  the  service  of  the  guild,  "a 
chalice  and  twelve  pence  in  counted  money,"  requesting 
the  members  "to  pray  for  his  good  estate,  for  the 
souls  of  his  parents,  friends,  benefactors,  and  others  for 
whom  he  was  bound  to  pray."  In  return  for  this 
valuable  present,  the  guild  granted  that  it  should  be 
accounted  as  Cantelaw's  life-subscription. 

Having  spoken  of  the  sources  of  income,  which 
were  practically  the  same  in  all  guilds,  something  must 
be  said  as  to  the  expenditure  over  and  above  the 
purposes  for  which  the  guilds  existed.  This  may  be 
illustrated  from  the  accpunts  of  this  same  fraternity  of 
tailors  of  Winchester.^  In  the  first  place,  as  in  almost 
every  similar  society,  provision  was  made  for  the 
funerals  of  members  and  for  the  usual  daily  mass  for 
thirty  days  after  the  death  of  the  deceased  members. 
The  sum  set  down  is  2S.  6d.  for  each  trental  of  thirty 
masses.  Then  we  find  mention  of  alms  to  the  poor 
and  sick;  thus  in  1403,  the  sum  of  36s.,  about  one- 
tenth  of  the  annual  revenue,  was  spent  upon  this  object. 
This,  of  course,  was  charity  of  a  general  kind,  and 
wholly  unconnected  with  the  assistance  given  by  rule 
to  necessitous  members  of  the  guild." 

1  The  existence  of  which  I  know  from  Mr.  Francis  Joseph  Baigent,  who 
with  his  usual  generosity  allowed  me  to  examine  and  take  my  notes  from  the 
copies  which  he  has  among  his  great  collection  of  materials  for  the  history  of 
Hampshire. 

2  One  example  of  this  latter,  or  as  I  might  call  it,  ordinary  expense  of  the 
society,  is  worth  recording.     In  141 1,  and  subsequent  years,  an  annual  pay- 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD   LIFE         373 

One  expense,  very  common  in  these  mediaeval 
guilds,  was  the  preparation  for  taking  a  fitting  part 
in  the  great  annual  religious  pageant  or  procession 
on  Corpus  Christi  day.  In  the  case  of  this  Tailors' 
Guild  at  Winchester,  we  find  sums  of  money  charged 
for  making  wax  torches  and  ornamenting  them  with 
flowers  and  red  and  blue  wax,  with  card  shields  and 
parchment  streamers,  or  "  pencils,"  as  they  are  called. 
The  members  of  the  guild  apparently  carried  small 
tapers  ;  but  the  four  great  torches  were  borne  by  hired 
men,  who  received  a  shilling  each  for  their  trouble. 
It  is  somewhat  difficult  for  us  nowadays  to  under- 
stand the  importance  attached  to  these  great  ecclesias- 
tical pageants  by  our  ancestors  four  hundred  years  or 
so  ago.  But  as  to  the  fact,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
Among  the  documents  in  the  municipal  archives  of 
Winchester  there  exists  an  order  of  the  Mayor  and 
Corporation  as  to  the  disposition  of  this  solemn  pro- 
cession in  1435.  It  runs  thus:  "At  a  convocation 
holden  in  the  city  of  Winchester  the  Friday  next  after 
the  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi  in  the  thirteenth  year  of  the 
reign  of  King  Harry  the  Sixth,  after  the  conquest ;  it 
was  ordained  by  Richard  Salter,  mayor  of  the  city  of 

ment  of  13s.  4d.  is  entered  on  the  accounts  as  made  to  one  Thomas 
Deverosse,  a  tailor,  and  apparently  a  member  of  the  fraternity.  The  history 
of  this  man's  poverty  is  curious.  When  Bishop  William  of  Wykeham, 
desiring  to  build  Winchester  College,  purchased  certain  lands  for  the  purpose, 
amongst  the  rest  was  a  field  which  a  tailor  of  Winchester,  this  Thomas 
Deverosse,  subsequently  claimed  ;  and  to  make  good  his  contention,  brought 
a  suit  of  ejectment  against  the  Bishop.  The  case  was  tried  in  the  King's 
Bench,  and  the  tailor  not  only  lost,  but  was  cast  in  costs  and  so  ruined. 
With  some  writers,  William  of  Wykeham's  good  name  had  been  allowed  to 
suffer  most  unjustly  for  his  share  in  the  misfortunes  of  the  unlucky  tailor  ;  for 
the  Bishop  not  only  undertook  to  pay  the  costs  of  the  suit  himself,  but  agreed 
that  the  college  should  make  the  unfortunate  claimant  a  yearly  allowance  of 
8d.  to  assist  him  in  his  poverty.  The  Tailors'  Guild  secured  to  him  a 
pension  of  13s.  4d. 


374      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

Winchester,  John  Symer  and  Harry  Putt,  baihffs  of 
the  city  aforesaid,  and  also  by  all  the  citizens  and 
commonalty  of  the  same  city  :  It  is  agreed  of  a  certain 
general  procession  on  the  Feast  of  Corpus  Christi,  of 
divers  artificers  and  crafts  within  the  said  city  :  that  is 
to  say  the  carpenters  and  felters  shall  go  together  first  ; 
smiths  and  barbers,  second  ;  cooks  and  butchers,  third  ; 
shoemakers  with  two  lights,  fourth  ;  tanners  and  japan- 
ners,  fifth  ;  plumers  and  silkmen,  sixth  ;  fishers  and 
farriers,  seventh  ;  taverners,  eighth  ;  weavers,  with  two 
lights,  ninth ;  fullers,  with  two  lights,  tenth  ;  dyers^ 
with  two  lights,  eleventh  ;  chaundlers  and  brewers, 
twelfth  ;  mercers,  with  two  lights,  thirteenth  ;  the  wives 
with  one  light  and  John  Blake  with  another  light, 
fourteenth  ;  and  all  these  lights  shall  be  borne  orderly 
before  the  said  procession  before  the  priests  of  the  city. 
And  the  four  lights  of  the  brethren  of  St.  John's  shall 
be  borne  about  the  Body  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  the 
same  day  in  the  procession  aforesaid." 

The  brethren  of  St.  John's  just  named,  as  the  chief 
object  of  their  association,  kept  a  hospital  for  the  poor 
and  sick  in  the  city.  They  paid  a  chaplain  of  their 
own,  as  indeed  did  most  of  the  guilds,  and  had  a 
master  and  matron  to  look  after  the  comfort  of  the 
poor.  They  provided  bed  and  bedding,  and  carefully 
administered  not  only  their  own  subscriptions,  but  the 
sums  of  money  freely  bequeathed  to  them  to  be  spent 
on  charity.  At  every  market  held  within  the  precincts 
of  Winchester  an  officer,  paid  by  the  society,  attended 
and  claimed  for  the  support  of  the  poor  a  tax  of  two 
handfuls  of  corn  from  every  sack  exposed  for  sale. 
The  mayor  and  bailiffs  were  apparently  the  official 
custodians  of  this  guild,  and  numerous  legacies  in  wills, 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD   LIFE         375 

even  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  attest  its  popularity. 
For  example,  on   February   19,    1503,  John  Cornishe, 
alias  Putte,  late  Mayor  of  Winchester,  died  and  left  to 
the  guardians  his   tenements   and    gardens    under    the 
penthouse  in  the  city  for  the  charity,  on  condition  that 
for  ten  years  they  would  spend  6s.  8d.  in  keeping  his 
annual  obit.       In    1520,   a  draper  of  London,  named 
Galley,   bequeathed    ten    shillings   to  the    hospital    for 
annually  repairing  and  improving  the   bedding  of  the 
poor.     The   accounts   of  this   Fraternity  of  St.  John's 
Hospital  for  a  considerable   period    in    the  fourteenth 
century  are  still   in   existence.     They   show   large  re- 
ceipts, sometimes  amounting  to  over  ;^ioo,  from  lands, 
shops,   houses,    and   from  the  sale  of  cattle  and  farm 
produce,   over  and  above  the  annual  subscriptions  of 
members.      On  the  other  side,  week  by  week  we  have 
the  payments  for  food  provided  for  the  service  of  the 
poor  :    fish,  flesh,   beer,  and  bread  are  the  chief  items. 
One  year,  for  instance,  the  bread  bought  for  the  sick 
amounted  to  36s.  6d. ;  beer  to  36s.  8d.  ;  meat  to  32s.  2d. ; 
fish  to  28s.  3|d.,  &c.      Besides  this  seven  shillings  were 
expended  in  mustard,  and   3s.   6d.  for  six  gallons  of 
oil.     This  same  year  the  guardians  also  paid  2s.  2d.  for 
the  clothes  and  shoes  for  a  young  woman  named  Sibil 
"  who  nursed  the  poor  in  the  hospital."     The  above  re- 
presents only  the  actual  money  expended  over  the  sick 
patients,  and  from  the  same  source,  most  minute  and 
curious  information  might  be  added  as  to  the  other  ex- 
penses of  the  house,  including,  for  instance,  even  the 
purchase  of  grave-clothes  and  coffins  for  the  dead  poor, 
the  wages  and  clothing  of  the  matron  and  servant,  and 
the  payment  of  the  officer  who  collected  the  handfuls  of 
corn  in  the  market-place.     At  times  we  have  evidence 


376      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

of  the  arrival  and  care  of  strange  poor  people — we 
should  perhaps  call  them  "  tramps  "  in  our  day.  For 
instance,  here  is  one  heading  :  "  The  expenses  of  three 
poor  strangers  in  the  hospital  for  21  days  and  nights, 
I5fd.  ;  to  each  of  whom  is  given  |d.  Item:  the 
expenses  of  one  other  for  5  days,  3! d.  Item :  the  ex- 
penses of  the  burial  of  the  said  sick  person,  3d.  Item : 
the  expenses  of  four  pilgrims  lodged  for  a  night,  2d. 
Item :  new  straw  to  stuff  the  beds  of  the  sick,  8d. 
Item  :  paid  to  the  laundress  for  washing  the  clothes  of 
the  sick  during  one  year,  i2d." 

To  speak  of  guilds  without  making  any  mention  of 
the  feasts — the  social  meetings — which  are  invariably 
associated  with  such  societies,  would  be  impossible. 
The  great  banquets  of  the  city  companies  are  proverbial, 
and,  in  origin  at  least,  they  arose  out  of  the  guild 
meeting  for  the  election  of  officers,  followed  by  the 
guild  feast.  As  a  rule,  these  meetings  took  place  on 
the  day  on  which  the  Church  celebrated  the  memory 
of  the  Saint  who  had  been  chosen  as  patron  of  the 
society,  and  were  probably  much  like  the  club  dinners 
which  are  still  cherished  features  of  village  life  in 
many  parts  of  England.^ 

^  Here  is  the  bill  for  the  annual  feast  in  the  Guild  of  Tailors  of  Winchester 
in  141 1.  The  association  was  under  the  patronage  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  and 
they  kept  their  feast  on  the  Day  of  the  beheading  of  the  Saint,  August  29. 
In  this  year,  1411,  the  29th  of  August  fell  upon  a  Saturday,  which  in  mediaeval 
times,  as  all  know,  was  a  day  of  abstinence  from  flesh-meat.  It  is  to  be 
noticed,  consequently,  that  provision  is  made  for  a  fish  dinner  :  "6  bushels  of 
wheat  at  8^d.  the  bushel ;  for  grinding  of  the  same,  3d. ;  for  baking  the  same, 
6d.  ;  ready-made  bread  purchased,  I2d.  ;  beer,  7s.  id. ;  salt  fish  bought  of 
Walter  Oakfield,  6s.  8d.  ;  mullet,  bass,  ray,  and  fresh  conger  bought  of  the 
same  Walter,  6s.  8d.  ;  fresh  salmon  of  the  same,  8s.  ;  eels,  lo^d. ;  fresh  fish 
bought  of  John  Wheller,  '  fisher,'  2s.  ;  ditto,  of  Adam  Frost,  9s.  ;  ditto, 
bought  of  a  stranger,  2s.  8d.  ;  beans  purchased,  9d.  ;  divers  spices,  i.e.  saffron, 
cinnamon,  sanders,  I2|d. ;  salt,  2d.  ;  mustard,  2^d.  ;  vinegar,  id. ;  tallow,  2d.  ; 
wood,    l8d. ;  coals,  3^d. ;   paid  to  Philip  the  cook,  2s.  ;   to  four  labourers, 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD   LIFE        377 

It  has   been  said  that  the  wardens  of  guilds  were 
frequently  named  in  mediaeval  wills  as  trustees  of  money 
for   various   charitable  purposes.      As   an    example    of 
property  thus  left  to  a  guild,  take  the  Candlemas  Guild, 
established   at    Bury   St.   Edmunds  :     the    society   was 
established  in  the  year  1471,  and  a  few  years  later  one 
of  the  members  made  over  to  the  brethren  considerable 
property  for  the   common   purposes  of  the  guild  and 
other  specified  objects.      His  name  was  John  Smith,  a 
merchant  of  Bury,  and  he  died,  we  are  told,  on   "  St. 
Peter's  even    at   Midsummer,    1481."      His  will,  which 
is  witnessed  by  the  Abbot  and   Prior  of  St.  Edmund's 
Abbey,  provides,  in  the  first  place,  for  the  keeping  of 
an  obit  "  devoutly."     The  residue  of  the  income  was 
to  accumulate  till  the  appointment  of  each  new  abbot, 
when,   on   the   election,    the   entire  amount  was   to   be 
paid  over  to  the  elect  in  place  of  the  sum  of  money 
the  town  was  bound  to  pay  on   every  such  occasion. 
Whatever    remained    over    and    above   this   was  to    be 
devoted   to    the   payments   of    any  tenth,   fifteenth,  or 
other  tax,  imposed  upon  the  citizens  by  royal  authority. 
This  revenue  was  to  be  administered  by  the  guardians 
of  the  guild,  who  were  bound  at  the  yearly  meeting  at 
Candlemas  to  render  an  account  of  their  stewardship. 
Year  by    year  John    Smith's  will  was  read  out  at  the 
meeting,  and  proclamation  was  made  before  the  anni- 
versary of  his  death  in  the  following  manner  :  ''  Let  us 
all  of  charity  pray  for  the  soul  of  John.     We  put  you 
in  remembrance  that  you  shall  not  miss  the  keeping  of 

2s.  6d.  ;  lo  three  minstrels,  3s.  4d.  ;  for  rushes  to  strew  the  hall,  4d.  ;  three 
gallons  and  one  pint  of  wine,  igd.  ;  cheese,  Sd."  Making  in  all  a  total  of 
£3,  4s.  3Ad.  This,  no  doubt,  represented  a  large  sum  in  those  days,  but  it  is 
as  well  to  remember  that  at  this  time  the  guild  consisted  of  170  men  and 
women,  and  the  cost  of  the  feast  was  not  one-sixth  part  of  the  annual  income. 


378      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

his   Dirge  and   also   of   his   Mass."      Round  about   the 
town  the  crier  was  sent  to  recite  the  following  lines  : — 

"  We  put  you  in  remembrance  all  that  the  oath  have  made, 
To  come  to  the  Mass  and  the  Dirge  the  souls  for  to  glade  : 
All  the  inhabitants  of  this  town  are  bound  to  do  the  same, 
To  pray  for  the  souls  of  John  and  Anne,  else  they  be  to  blame  : 
The  which  John  afore-rehearsed  to  this  town  hath  been  full  kind, 
Three  hundred  marks  for  this  town  hath  paid,  no  penny  unpaid  behind. 
Now  we  have  informed  you  of  John  Smith's  will  in  writing  as  it  is. 
And  for  the  great  gifts  that  he  hath  given,  God  bring  his  soul  to 
bliss.     Amen."  ^ 

The  example  set  by  this  donor  to  the  Candlemas 
Guild  at  Bury  was  followed  by  many  others  in  the 
later  part  of  the  fifteenth  century.  For  instance,  a 
"  gentlewoman,"  as  she  calls  herself,  one  Margaret 
Odom,  after  providing  by  will  for  the  usual  obit  and 
for  a  lamp  to  burn  before  "  the  holie  sacrament  in  St. 
James's  Church,"  desires  that  the  brethren  of  the  guild 
shall  devote  the  residue  of  the  income  arising  from 
certain  houses  and  lands  she  has  conveyed  to  their 
keeping,  to  paying  a  priest  to  ''  say  mass  in  the  chapel 
of  the  gaol  before  the  prisoners  there,  and  giving  them 
holy  water  and  holy  bread  on  all  Sundays,  and  to  give 
to  the  prisoners  of  the  long  ward  of  the  said  gaol  every 
week  seven  faggots  of  wood  from  Hallowmass  (Novem- 
ber i)  to  Easter  Day."  ^ 

Intimately  connected  with  the  subject  of  the  guilds 
is  that  of  the  fairs,  which  formed  so  great  a  feature  in 
mediaeval  commercial  life,  and  at  which  the  craft  guilds 
were  represented.  For  the  south  of  England,  the 
great    fair    held    annually  at    Winchester    became    the 

1  Harl.  MS.  4626,  f.  26. 

2  Ibid.,  f.  29.     This  was  confiscated  to  the  Crown  on  the  dissolution  of  the 
Guilds  and  Fraternities  under  Edward  VI. 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD   LIFE         379 

centre  of  our  national  commerce  with  France.  The 
following  account  of  it  is  given  in  Mr.  W.  J.  Ashley's 
most  interesting  Introduction  to  English  Economic  History  : 
"A  fair  for  three  days  on  the  eastern  hill  outside 
Winchester  was  granted  to  the  bishop  by  William  II.; 
his  immediate  successors  granted  extension  of  time, 
until  by  a  charter  of  Henry  II.  it  was  fixed  at  sixteen 
days,  from  31st  August  to  15th  September.  On  the 
morning  of  31st  August  'the  justiciars  of  the  pavilion  of 
the  bishop '  proclaimed  the  fair  on  the  hilltop,  then 
rode  on  horseback  through  the  city  proclaiming  the 
opening  of  the  fair.  The  keys  of  the  city  and  the 
weighing  machine  in  the  wool  market  were  taken 
possession  of,  and  a  special  mayor  and  special  bailiffs 
were  appointed  to  supersede  the  city  officials  during 
the  fair  time.  The  hilltop  was  quickly  covered  with 
streets  of  wooden  shops  :  in  one,  the  merchants  from 
Flanders  ;  in  another,  those  of  Caen  or  some  other 
Norman  town  ;  in  another,  the  merchants  from  Bristol. 
Here  were  placed  the  goldsmiths  in  a  row,  and  there 
the  drapers,  &c.,  whilst  around  the  whole  was  a  wooden 
palisade  with  guarded  entrance,  a  precaution  which  did 
not  always  prevent  enterprising  adventurers  from 
escaping  payment  of  the  toll  by  digging  a  way  in  for 
themselves  under  the  wall.  ...  In  Winchester  all  trade 
was  compulsorily  suspended,  and  within  '  a  seven  league 
circuit,'  guards  being  stationed  at  outlying  posts,  on 
bridges  and  other  places  of  passage,  to  see  that  the 
monopoly  was  not  infringed.  At  Southampton  nothing 
was  to  be  sold  during  the  fair  time  but  victuals,  and  even 
the  very  craftsmen  of  Winchester  were  bound  to  transfer 
themselves  to  the  hill  and  there  carry  on  their  occupa- 
tions during  the  fair.     There  was  a  graduated  scale  of 


380       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

tolls  and  duties  :  all  merchants  of  London,  Winchester, 
or  Wallingford  who  entered  during  the  first  week  were 
free  from  entrance  tolls.  ...  In  every  fair  there  was  a 
court  of  pic-powder  (of  dusty  feet)  in  which  was  decided 
by  merchant  law  all  cases  of  dispute  that  might  arise, 
the  ordinary  jurisdiction  being  for  a  time  suspended  in 
the  town  ;  at  Winchester  this  was  called  the  Pavilion 
Court.  Hither  the  bishop's  servants  brought  all  the 
weights  and  measures  to  be  tested ;  here  the  justices 
determined  on  an  assize,  or  fixed  scale,  for  bread,  wine, 
beer,  and  other  victuals,  adjudging  to  the  pillory  any 
baker  whose  bread  was  found  to  be  of  defective  weight  ; 
and  here  every  day  disputes  between  merchants  as  to 
debts  were  decided  by  juries  upon  production  and 
comparison  of  the  notched  wooden  tallies."  ^ 

A  few  words  must  be  said  about  the  final  destruction 
of  the  English  guilds.  At  the  close  of  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.  an  act  of  Parliament  was  passed  vesting 
the  property  of  colleges,  chantries,  fraternities,  brother- 
hoods and  guilds  in  the  Crown  (38  Hen.  VIII.,  c.  4). 
The  king  was  empowered  to  send  out  his  commissioners 
to  take  possession  of  all  such  property,  on  the  plea  that 
it  might  be  "  used  and  exercised  to  more  godly  and 
virtuous  purposes."  Henry  died  before  the  provisions 
of  the  act  could  be  complied  with,  and  a  second  act 
was  passed  through  the  first  Parliament  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  VI.  (i  Ed.  VI.,  c.  14).  This  went  beyond  the 
former  decree  of  destruction,  for  after  providing  for 
the  demolition  of  colleges,  free  chapels,  and  chantries, 
it  proceeded  not  only  separately  by  name  to  grant  to 
the  king  all  sums  of  money  devoted  "  by  any  manner 
of  corporations,  guilds,  fraternities,  companies  or  fellow- 

^  hitrodiutiou  to  English  Economic  History  (2nd  ed.),  i.  pp.  loo-ioi. 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD   LIFE         381 

ships  or  mysteries  or  crafts,"  to  the  support  of  a  priest, 
obits  or  lights  (which  may  be  taken  under  colour  of 
religion),  but  to  hand  over  to  the  crown  "  all  fraternities, 
brotherhoods  and  guilds,  being  within  the  realm  of 
England  and  Wales  and  other  the  king's  dominions, 
and  all  manors,  lands,  tenements,  and  other  heredita- 
ments belonging  to  them,  other  than  such  corporations,, 
guilds,  fraternities,  &c.,  and  the  manors,  lands,  &c., 
pertaining  to  the  said  corporations,  &c.,  above 
mentioned." 

The  Parliament  of  Henry  VIII.  assigned  as  a  reason 
for  this  seizure  of  the  property  of  the  corporate  bodies 
the  need  ''  for  the  maintenance  of  these  present  wars," 
and  cleverly  put  into  one  group  "  colleges,  free  chapels, 
chantries,  hospitals,  fraternities,  brotherhoods,  and 
guilds."  "The  act  of  Edward  VI.,"  writes  Mr.  Toulmin 
Smith,  ''was  still  more  ingenious,  for  it  held  up  the 
dogma  of  purgatory  to  abhorrence,  and  began  to  hint 
at  grammar  schools.  The  object  of  both  acts  was  the 
same.  All  the  possessions  of  all  the  guilds  (except 
what  could  creep  out  as  being  mere  trading  guilds, 
which  saved  the  London  guilds)  became  vested  by 
these  two  acts  in  the  Crown  ;  and  the  unprincipled 
courtiers  who  had  advised  and  helped  the  scheme 
gorged  themselves  out  of  this  wholesale  plunder  of 
what  was,  in  every  sense,  public  property."  ^ 

It  is  clear  that  in  seizing  the  property  of  the  guilds 
the  Crown  destroyed  far  more  than  it  gained  for  itself. 
A  very  large  proportion  of  their  revenues  was  derived 
from  the  entrance  fees  and  the  annual  subscriptions  of 
the  existing  members,  and  in  putting  an  end  to  these 
societies  the  State  swept  away  the  organisation  by  which 

^  Old  Ci-oiun  House,  p.  36,  cf.  pp.  37-39. 


382      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

these  voluntary  subscriptions  were  raised,  and  this 
not  in  one  or  two  places,  but  all  over  England.  In 
this  way  far  more  harm  was  in  reality  done  to  the 
interests  of  the  poor,  sick,  and  aged,  and,  indeed,  to 
the  body  politic  at  large,  than  the  mere  seizure  of 
their   comparatively  little    capital,  whether   in    land  or 

money. 

It  is  not,  of  course,  meant  to  imply  that  the  injury 
to  the  poor  and  sick  was  not  fully  recognised  at  the 
time  of  these  legal  confiscations.  People  deeply  re- 
sented the  idea  that  what  generations  of  benefactors 
had  intended  for  the  relief  of  distress  should  thus  be 
made  to  pass  into  the  pocket  of  some  "  new  "  man  who 
had  grown  great  upon  the  spoils.  The  literature  of 
the  period  affords  abundant  evidence  of  the  popular 
feeling.  Crowley,  for  instance,  wrote  about  1550 — 
just  at  this  very  time — and  although  no  one  would 
look  for  any  accurate  description  of  facts  in  his  rhyming 
satires,  he  may  be  taken  as  a  reliable  witness  as  to  what 
the  people  were  saying.  This  is  what  he  writes  on  the 
point  : — 

"  A  merchant,  that  long  time 
Had  been  in  strange  lands 
Returned  to  his  country, 
Which  in  Europe  stands. 

And  in  his  return 

His  way  lay  to  pass 
By  a  spittle  house  not  far  from 

Where  his  dwelling-house  was. 

He  looked  for  this  hospital, 

But  none  could  he  see, 
For  a  lordly  house  was  built 

Where  the  hospital  should  be. 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD   LIFE         383 

'  Good  Lord  !'  (said  the  merchant), 

'  Is  my  country  so  wealthy 
That  the  very  beggars'  houses 

Are  built  so  gorgeously  ? ' 

Then  by  the  wayside 

Him  chanced  to  see 
A  poor  man  that  craved 

Of  him  for  charity. 

'  Why '  (quoth  the  merchant), 

'  What  meaneth  this  thing  ? 
Do  ye  beg  by  the  way, 

And  have  a  house  for  a  king  ? ' 

'  Alas  !  sir  '  (quoth  the  poor  man), 

'  We  are  all  turned  out, 
And  lie  and  die  in  corners 

Here  and  there  about. ' " 

It  has  frequently  been  asserted  that  although  grave 
injury  was  undoubtedly  done  to  the  poor  of  the  land 
by  this  wholesale  confiscation,  it  was  done  unwittingly 
by  the  authorities,  or  that,  at  the  worst,  the  portions 
of  revenue  derived  from  the  property  which  had  been 
intended  for  the  support  of  the  sick,  aged,  &c.,  was 
so  bound  up  with  those  to  which  religious  obligations 
(now  declared  superstitious  and  illegal)  were  attached, 
that  it  was  impossible  to  distinguish  the  latter  from 
the  former,  and  all  perished  together,  or  rather  passed 
undistinguished  into  the  royal  pocket.  Such  a  view  is 
not  borne  out  by  facts,  and  however  satisfactory  it 
might  be  to  believe  that  this  robbery  of  the  poor  and 
sick  by  the  Crown  was  accidental  and  unpremeditated, 
the  historian  is  bound  by  the  evidence  to  hold  that  the 
pillage  was  fully  premeditated  and  deliberately  and  con- 
sciously carried  out.  It  is  of  course  obvious,  that  some 
may  regard  it  as  proper  that  funds  given  for  the  support 


384      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

of  priests  to  say  masses  or  offer  prayers  for  the  souls  of 
the  departed  should  have  been  confiscated,  although  it 
would  have  been  better  had  the  money  been  devoted  to 
some  purpose  of  local  utility  rather  than  that  it  should 
have  been  added  to  the   Crown  revenues  or  have  gone 
to  enrich  some  royal  favourite.     For  example  it  may,  for 
the  sake  of  argument,  be   admitted  that  the  two  fields 
at  Petersfield  in    Hampshire  thus  taken   by    the   royal 
commissioners — one    called    White  field,   in    the    tenure 
of   Gregory    Hill,  the  rent   of  which    was  intended  to 
keep    a  perpetual   light   burning  in  the  parish  church, 
and  the    other  held  by   John   Mill,  given    to  support  a 
priest     "  called    the    Morrow    Masse    priest "    {i.e.    the 
priest  employed  to  say  the  early  morning  mass  for  the 
convenience  of  people  going  to  work) — were  under  the 
circumstances   fair    articles    of    plunder   for    the    royal 
officials,  when  the  mass  was  prohibited  and  the  doctrine 
symbolised  by  the  perpetual  light  declared  superstitious. 
But  this  will   not  apply  to  the  money  intended  for  the 
poor.     It  might  have  been  easy  to  justify  the  Crown's 
action  in  taking  the  priest's  portion,  and  even  the  little 
pittance  intended  for  the  serving  clerk,  but  the  seizure 
of   the  benefactions  to  the  poor   cannot   be   defended. 
It  was  not  accidental  ;  for  an  examination  of  the  original 
documents  relating  to  the  guilds  and  chantries  now  in 
the   Record  Office  will  show  not  only  that  the   Royal 
Commissioners   were   as   a   rule  careful   to   distinguish 
between  the  portions   intended  for   religious   purposes 
and     those     set     aside    for    perpetual   charity    to     the 
sick  and  poor,  but  in   many  cases   they  actually  pro- 
posed  to    the    Court   of  Augmentation   to    protect  the 
latter   and  preserve  them  for  the  objects  of  Christian 
charity  intended  by  the  original  donors.     In  every  such 


PRE-REFORMATION  GUILD  LIFE        385 

case  the  document  reveals  the  fact  that  this  suggestion 
in  the  interest  of  common  justice  was  rejected  by  the 
ultimate  Crown  officials,  and  a  plain  intimation  is 
afforded  on  the  face  of  the  documents  that  even  those 
sums  intended  by  the  original  donors  for  the  relief  of 
poverty  were  to  be  confiscated. 

The  destruction  of  the  guilds  is,  from  any  point  of 
view,  a  sad  and  humiliating  story,  and,  perhaps  fortu- 
nately, history  has  so  far  permitted  the  thick  veil  of 
obscurity  drawn  over  the  subject  at  the  time  to  re- 
main practically  undisturbed.  A  consideration  of  the 
scope  and  purposes  of  English  mediaeval  guilds  cannot 
but  raise  our  opinion  of  the  wisdom  of  our  forefathers 
who  fostered  their  growth,  and  convince  us  that  many 
and  useful  ends  were  served  by  these  voluntary  societies. 
This  opinion  we  can  hold,  wholly  apart  from  any  views 
we  may  entertain  about  the  religious  aspects  of  these 
societies  generally.  Socialistic  they  were,  but  their 
socialism,  so  far  from  being  adverse  to  religion,  as  the 
socialism  of  to-day  is  generally  considered  to  be,  was 
transfused  and  directed  by  a  deeply  religious  spirit, 
carried  out  into  the  duties  of  life,  and  manifesting  itself 
in  practical  charities  of  every  kind. 

One  or  two  points  suggested  by  consideration  of 
the  working  of  mediaeval  guilds  may  be  emphasized. 
The  system  of  these  voluntary  societies  would  be,  of 
course,  altogether  impossible  and  out  of  place  in  this 
modern  world  of  ours.  They  would  not,  and  could 
not,  meet  the  wants  and  needs  of  these  days  ;  and  yet 
their  working  is  quite  worth  studying  by  those  who  are 
interested  in  the  social  problems  which  nowadays 
are  thrusting  themselves  upon  the  public  notice  and 
demanding  a  solution.     The  general  lessons  taught  by 

2  B 


386      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

these  voluntary  associations  may  be  summed  up  under 
one  or   two   heads  suggested  by  Mr.  Ashley's  volume 
already  referred  to  :  (i)  It  is  obvious  that,  unhke  what  we 
find  to-day  in  the  commercial  enterprises  of  the  world, 
capital  played  but  a  very  small  part  in  the  handicrafts 
of   those    times  ;    skill,    perseverance,    and    connection 
were  more    important.     (2)  The  middle  ages    had  no 
knowledge   of   any    class  of    what  may  be  called  per- 
manent wage-labourers.     There   was   no  working-class 
in    our   modern    sense :    if    by   that    is   meant   a   class 
the    greater    portion    of    which    never    rises.     In    the 
fourteenth    century,  a  few  years  of  steady  work  as  a 
journeyman  meant,  in  most  cases,  that  a  workman  was 
able  to   set  up   as   a   master  craftsman.     Every  hard- 
working apprentice  expected  as  a  matter  of  course  to 
be  able  to  become  in  time  a  master.     The  collisions 
between  capital  and  labour  to  which  we  are  so  much 
accustomed    had    no    place    in   the   middle   ages.      (3) 
There  was  no  such  gulf  between  master  and  man  as 
exists  in  our  days.      The  master  and  his  journeyman 
worked  together  side  by  side,  in  the  same  shop,  at  the 
same  work,  and  the  man  could  earn  fully  half  as  much 
as  his  master.      (4)   If  we  desire   to   institute   a   com- 
parison between  the  status  of  the  working-classes  in  the 
fourteenth   century    and    to-day,  the   comparison    must 
be  between  the  workman  we  know  and  the  old  master 
craftsman.      The  shop-keeping  class  and  the  middle- 
man were  only  just  beginning  to  exist.     The  consumer 
and  producer  stood  in  close  relation,  and  public  con- 
trol was  exercised  fully,  as  the  craft  guilds  were  subject 
to   the   supervision   and  direction   of  the  municipal  or 
central  authority  of  the  cities  in  which  they  existed. 


CHAPTER   XII 

MEDL^VAL   WILLS,    CHANTRIES,    AND    OBITS 

The  value  of  side-lights  in  an  historical  picture  is  fre- 
quently overlooked,  or  not  duly  appreciated.  The  main 
facts  of  a  story  may  be  presented  with  accuracy  and 
detail,  and  yet  the  result  may  be  as  unlike  the  reality 
as  the  fleshless  skeleton  is  to  the  living  man.  More 
especially  are  these  side-lights  requisite  when  the  ob- 
ject of  the  inquirer  is  to  ascertain  the  tone  and  temper 
of  minds  at  some  given  time,  and  to  discover  what  men, 
under  given  circumstances,  were  doing  and  thinking 
about.  In  trying,  therefore,  to  gauge  the  mental  atti- 
tude of  Englishmen  towards  the  ecclesiastical  system 
existing  on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation,  it  is  important 
not  to  neglect  any  faint  glimmer  of  li^t  which  may 
be  reflected  from  the  records  of  the  past,  the  brightness 
of  which  in  its  setting  has  been  obscured  only  too  well 
by  the  dark  storm-clouds  of  controversy  and  prejudice. 
Not  the  least  valuable  among  what  may  be  described 
as  the  minor  sources  of  information  about  the  real  feel- 
ing of  the  people  generally  towards  their  religion  on  the 
eve  of  the  Reformation  are  the  wills,  of  which  we  have 
abundant  examples  in  the  period  in  question.  It  may, 
of  course,  appear  to  some  that  their  spirit  was  in  great 
measure  dictated  by  what  they  now  hold  to  be  the 
erroneous  opinions  then  in  vogue  as  to  Purgatory  and 

the  efficacy  of  prayer  for  the  dead.     That  these  doc- 

387 


388       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

trines  of  the  Church  had  a  firm  hold  on  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  the  people  at  large  is  certain.     The  evidence 
that  this  was  so  is  simply  overwhelming,  and  it  may  be 
taken  to  prove,  not  merely  the  existence  of  the  teach- 
ing, but  the  cordial  and  unhesitating  way  in  which  it 
was  accepted  as  a  necessary  part  of  the  Christian  faith. 
But  this,  after  all,  is  merely  a  minor  point  of  interest  in 
the  wills  of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.    What 
clearly   appears   in   these  documents,   however,   is    the 
CathoHc   tone  which    pervades  them,   and   enables  the 
reader  to  realise  perhaps  more  than  he  is  able  to  do 
from  any  other  class  of  document,  the  strong  hold  their 
religion  must  have  had  on  the  love  and  intelligence  of 
the  people  of  those  days.     The  intelligences  may  not, 
indeed,  have  been  of  any  very  high  order,  but  the  souls 
were  certainly  penetrated  by  true  Christian  ideals.     To 
those  who  penned  those  early  wills,  Faith  was  clearly  no 
mere  intellectual  apprehension  of  speculative  truth.     Re- 
ligion, and  religious  observance,  was  to  them  a  practical 
reality  which  entered  into  their  daily  lives.     The  kindly 
Spirit   that   led  them,  brought   them   strength   to   bear 
their  own  and  others'  burdens,  in  sickness  and  health, 
in   adversity '  and   prosperity,  from  childhood  till  their 
eyes  closed  in  their  last  sleep.     If  we  may  judge  from 
these  last  aspirations  of  the  Christian  soul  as  displayed 
in  medieval  wills,  we  must  allow  that  religion  was  very 
real  indeed  to  our  English  forefathers  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  that  in  reality  the  whole  social  order  was 
founded    upon    a    true    appreciation    of    the    Christian 
brotherhood    in   man,    and    upon   the   doctrine  of  the 
efficacy  of  good  works  for  salvation.     These  truths  of 
the  social  order  were  not  indeed  taught  perhaps  scientifi- 
cally, and  we  might  look  in  vain  for  any  technical  ex- 


WILLS,  CHANTRIES,  AND  OBITS         389 

pression  of  them  in  the  books  of  religious  instruction 
most  used  during  this  period,  but  they  formed  none  the 
less  part  of  the  traditional  Christian  teaching  of  the 
Middle  Ages  founded  on  the  great  principles  of  the 
Bible  which  then  dominated  popular  thought.^ 

Those  who  would  understand  what  this  Christian 
spirit  meant  and  the  many  ways  in  which  it  manifested 
itself,  need  only  compare  the  wills  of  the  late  fifteenth 
and  the  early  sixteenth  centuries  with  those,  say,  of  the 
later  years  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  when  the  religious  revo- 
lution had  been  accomplished,  and  note  the  obvious 
difference  in  tone  and  purpose.  The  comparison  need 
not  be  searching  or  entail  much  study  ;  the  change  is 
patent  and  striking,  and  lies  on  the  very  surface. 

Some  examples  of  notes  taken  from  pre-Reformation 
wills  may  be  here  given  from  the  collection  of  Northern 
wills  published  by  the  Surtees  Society  under  the  title 
Testamenta  Eboracensia,  the  fourth  volume  of  which  con- 
tains many  wills  made  during  the  period  in  question. 
It  may  be  useful  to  remark  that  one  and  all  of  these 
documents  manifest  the  same  spirit  of  practical  Chris- 
tianity, though  of  course  in  various  degrees.  Most  of 
them  contain  bequests  to  churches  with  which  the 
donors  were  chiefly  connected  ;  money  is  frequently 
left  to  the  fabric,  or  to  some  special  altar,  or  for 
the  purchase  of    vestments,,  or    to    furnish  some  light 

^  See  the  remarks  in  regard  to  France  of  M.  Charles  de  Ribbe,  La  Sociiti 
Provencale  ct  la  fin  du  moyen  age,  1898,  p.  60.  Speaking  of  the  fifteenth- 
century  wills,  he  says  ;  "  Nous  en  avons  lu  un  grand  nombre,  et  nous  avons 
ete  frappe  de  la  haute  inspiration,  parfois  nieme  du  talent,  avec  lesquels  des 
notaires  de  village  savaient  traduire  les  elans  de  foi  et  de  piete  dont  ils  etaient 
les  interpretes  chez  leurs  clients.  .  .  .  Cette  foi  et  cette  piete  ;  trouve  d'abord 
leur  expression  dans  le  venerable  signe  de  la  sainte  croix  (lequel  est  plus 
d'une  fois  figure  graphiquement).  Suit  la  recommandation  de  I'ame  a  Dieu 
Createur  du  ciel  et  de  la  terre,  au  Christ  redempteur,  a  la  Vierge  Marie,"  &c. 
(P-  91). 


390      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

to  burn  before  the  Blessed  Sacrament,  the  rood  or 
some  image,  to  which  the  deceased  had  a  particular 
devotion.  Specific  gifts  of  silks,  rich  articles  of 
clothing  and  embroidered  hangings  fitted  to  adorn 
the  Church  of  God,  to  make  chasubles  and  copes, 
or  altar  curtains  and  frontals,  are  common.  Prac- 
tical sympathy  with  the  poor  is  manifested  by  pro- 
vision for  distributions  of  doles  at  funerals  and  at 
anniversaries,  and  by  gifts  of  cloaks  and  other  articles 
of  clothing,  to  those  of  the  parish  who  were  engaged  in 
carrying  torches  at  the  burial,  or  had  promised  to  offer 
up  prayers  for  the  soul  of  the  testator.  Besides  these 
general  features  of  interest,  the  wills  in  question  show 
us  that  building  operations  of  great  magnitude  were 
being  carried  on  at  this  time  in  the  parish  churches  of 
the  North,  and  they  thus  furnish  an  additional  proof  of 
the  very  remarkable  interest  thus  taken  by  the  people 
at  large  in  the  rebuilding  and  adornment  of  the  parish 
churches  of  England  right  up  to  the  very  overthrow  of 
the  old  ecclesiastical  system.  These  particular  wills 
also  bear  a  singular  testimony  to  the  kindly  feelings 
which  existed  at  this  time  between  the  general  body  of 
the  clergy  and  the  regular  orders.  Nearly  every  will  of 
any  cleric  of  note  contains  bequests  of  money  to  monks, 
nuns,  and  friars,  whilst,  in  particular,  those  of  the  canons 
and  officials  of  the  great  metropolitan  church  of  York 
bear  testimony  to  the  affection  and  esteem  in  which 
they  held  the  Abbot  and  monks  of  St.  Mary's  Abbey  in 
the  same  city,  which  from  its  close  proximity  to  the 
minster  might  in  these  days  have  been  regarded  as  its 
rival. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  religious  spirit  which  per- 
vades these  documents,  we  may  take  the  following  pre- 


WILLS,  CHANTRIES,  AND  OBITS         391 

face  to  the  will  of  one  John  Dalton  of  Hull,  made  in 
1487.  "In  nomine  Patris  et  Filii  et  Spiritus  Sancti. 
Amen.  I,  John  Dalton  of  the  Kingstown  upon  Hull — 
considering  and  remembering,  think  in  my  heart  that 
the  days  of  man  in  this  mortal  life  are  but  short,  that 
the  hour  of  death  is  in  the  hand  of  Almighty  God,  and 
that  He  hath  ordained  the  terms  that  no  man  may  pass. 
I  remember  also  that  God  hath  ordained  man  to  die, 
and  that  there  is  nothing  more  uncertain  than  the  hour 
of  death.  I  seeing  princes  and  (men  of)  great  estates 
die  daily,  and  men  of  all  ages  end  their  days,  and  that 
death  gives  no  certain  respite  to  any  living  creature,  but 
takes  them  suddenly.  For  these  considerations,  I,  being 
in  my  right  wit  and  mind,  loved  be  God,  whole  not 
sick,  beseech  Almighty  God  that  I  may  die  the  true  son 
of  Holy  Church  and  of  heart  truly  confessed,  with  con- 
trition and  repentance,  of  all  my  sins  that  ever  I  did 
since  the  first  hour  I  was  born  of  my  mother  into 
this  sinful  world,  to  the  hour  of  my  death.  Of  these 
offences  I  ask  and  beseech  Almighty  God  pardon  and 
forgiveness  ;  and  in  this  I  beseech  the  Blessed  Virgin 
Mary  and  her  blessed  Son  Jesu,  our  Saviour,  that 
suffered  pain  and  passion  for  me  and  all  sinful 
creatures,  and  all  the  holy  company  of  Paradise  to 
pray  for  me.  .  .  .  For  these  causes  aforesaid,  I,  being 
alive  of  whole  mind  and  memory,  loved  be  God,  dis- 
pose and  ordain  such  goods  as  God  hath  lent  me  mov- 
able and  immovable  by  my  testament,  and  ordain  this 
my  last  will  in  the  form  and  manner  that  followeth  : 
First,  I  recommend  in  humble  devotion,  contrition,  and 
true  repentance  of  my  faults  and  sins,  praying  and 
craving  mercy  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  .  .  .  my 
soul  to  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  when  it  shall  depart  from 


\ 


392      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

my  body,  and  to  our  Lady  St.  Mary,  Saint  Michael,  St. 
John  the  Baptist,  St.  John  the  Evangelist,  St.  Katherine 
and  St.  Barbara,  and  to  all  the  whole  company  and 
saints  of  heaven  :  and  my  body  I  will  to  the  earth 
whereof  it  came." 

The  testator  then  proceeds  to  direct  that  his  execu- 
tors shall  give  his  wife  a  third  of  his  property,  and  his 
children  another  third.  The  rest  he  wishes  to  be  be- 
stowed in  charity  as  they  may  think  best  "  to  the 
pleasure  of  God  and  the  health  of  my  soul "  ..."  as 
they  shall  answer  before  God  at  the  dreadful  day  of 
doom.  (Especially)  I  will  them  to  pay  my  debts, 
charging  them  before  God  to  discharge  me  and  my 
soul ;  and  in  this  let  them  do  for  me  as  they  would  I 
did  for  them,  as  I  trust  they  will  do."  ^ 

Of  much  the  same  character  is  the  briefer  Latin 
preface  to  the  will  of  a  sub-dean  of  York  in  1490.  "I 
protest  before  God  Almighty,  the  Blessed  Mary,  and  all 
saints,  and  I  expressly  proclaim  that,  no  matter  what 
infirmity  of  mental  weakness  may  happen  to  me  in  this 
or  any  other  sickness,  it  is  not  my  intention  in  any- 
thing to  swerve  from  the  Catholic  faith.  On  the  con- 
trary I  firmly  and  faithly  believe  all  the  articles  of  faith, 
all  the  sacraments  of  the  Church  ;  and  that  the  Church 
with  its  sacraments  is  sufficient  for  the  salvation  of  any 
one  however  guilty."  ^ 

To  take  one  more  example  of  the  same  spirit. 
Thomas  Dalton,  merchant  of  Hull — probably  son  of 
the  John  Dalton  whose  will  is  quoted  above — died  in 
1497.  After  charging  his  wife,  whom  he  leaves  his 
executrix,  to  pay  all  his  debts,  he  adds  :  "  And   I  will 

^   Testamenta  Eboraceusia  (Surtees  Society),  vol.  iv.  p.  21. 
2  Ibid.,  p.  127. 


WILLS,  CHANTRIES,  AND  OBITS         393 

and  give  my  mother  forty  shillings,  beseeching  her 
meekly  to  pray  for  me  and  to  give  me  her  daily  blessing, 
and  that  she  will  forgive  me  all  trespasses  and  faults 
done  by  me  to  her  since  I  was  born  of  her,  as  she  will 
be  forgiven  before  God  at  the  great  day  of  judgment."  ^ 

Much  the  same  spirit  evidently  dictated  the  follow- 
ing clause  in  the  will  of  John  Sothill  of  Dewsbury,  1502  : 
"  Also  I  pray  Thomas  my  son,  in  my  name  and  for  the 
love  of  God,  that  he  never  strive  with  his  mother,  as  he 
will  have  my  blessing,  for  he  will  find  her  courteous  to 
deal  with."  - 

Other  examples  of  the  catholicity  of  these  mediaeval 
wills  may  be  here  added  as  they  are  taken  from  the 
volume  almost  at  haphazard.  In  1487,  a  late  mayor 
of  the  city  of  York  leaves  money  to  help  in  the  repairs 
of  many  churches  of  the  city  and  its  neighbourhood. 
He  charges  his  executors  to  provide  for  the  mainten- 
ance of  lamps  and  lights  in  several  places,  and  specially 
names  a  gold  ring  with  a  diamond  in  it,  which  he  desires 
may  be  hung  round  the  neck  of  Our  Lady's  statue  in 
York  Minster,  and  another  with  a  turquoise  "  round  our 
Lord's  neck  that  is  in  the  arms  of  the  said  image  of  Our 
Lady."  After  making  provision  for  several  series  of 
masses  to  be  said,  as  for  example  one  of  thirty  in 
honour  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  another  in  honour  of  the 
Holy  Cross,  a  third  in  that  of  Our  Lady,  &c.,  the  tes- 
tator bequeaths  a  large  sum  of  money  to  dower  fifteen 
poor  girls,  and  to  find  fifty  complete  sets  of  beds  and 
bedding  for  the  poor,  as  well  as  other  extensive  charities.^ 

Thomas  Wood,  a  draper  of  Hull,  was  sheriff  in 
1479  and  died  in  1490.     By  will  he  left  to  his  parish 

^  Ibid.,  p.  127.  -  Ibid.,  p.  170. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  27. 


394      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

church  a  piece  of  worked  tapestry,  and  the  clause  by 
which  the  bequest  was  conveyed  shows  that  the  church 
already  possessed  many  costly  hangings  of  this  kind. 
It  runs  thus  :  "  To  the  Trinity  Church  one  of  my  best 
beds  of  Arras  work,  upon  condition  that  after  my 
decease  the  said  bed  shall  yearly  cover  my  grave  at  my 
Dirge  and  Mass,  done  in  the  said  Trinity  Church  with 
note  (in  singing)  for  ever  more.  Also  I  will  that  the 
said  bed  be  yearly  hung  in  the  said  church  on]  the  feast 
of  St.  George  the  Martyr  among  other  worshipful  beds, 
and  when  the  said  bed  be  taken  down  and  delivered, 
then  I  will  that  the  same  bed  be  re-delivered  into  the 
vestry  and  there  to  remain  with  my  cope  of  gold."  ^ 

The  same  kind  of  gift  appears  in  the  last  testament 
of  William  Rowkshaw,  Rector  of  Lowthorpe,  in  1504. 
"  I  leave,"  he  says,  "  to  the  Church  of  Catton  a  bed- 
covering  worked  with  great  figures  to  lie  in  front  of 
the  High  Altar  on  the  chief  feasts.  And  I  leave  also  a 
bed-covering  (worked)  with  the  image  of  a  lion  (a  blue 
lion  was  the  family  arms)  to  place  in  front  of  the  altar 
in  the  parish  church  of  Lowthorpe  on  the  chief  feasts." 
Also  in  the  will  of  William  Graystoke  of  Wakefield, 
executed  in  1508,  there  is  made  a  gift  to  the  parish 
church  of  "  a  cloth  of  arras  work  sometime  hanging 
in  the  Hall."  ^ 

Poor  scholars  at  the  universities  were  not  forgotten 
in  the  wills  of  the  period.  Mr.  Martin  Collins,  Treasurer 
of  York,  for  instance,  in  1508  charges  his  executors  to 
pay  for  a  scholar  at  either  Oxford  or  Cambridge  for 
seven  years  to  study  canon  law,  or  the  arts.  The  only 
condition  is  that  they  are  to  choose  him  from  the 
"poor  and  very  needy,  and  even  from  the  poorest  and 

1  Ibid.,  p.  60.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  335. 


WILLS,  CHANTRIES,  AND  OBITS         395 

most  necessitous."^  So,  too,  William  Copley  in  1489 
leaves  money  to  support  two  poor  priests  for  the  pur- 
pose of  study  at  Cambridge.  Archbishop  Rotheram  in 
his  long  and  most  Christian  will,  executed  in  June  1500, 
makes  provision  for  the  education  of  youth.  He  founds 
a  college  in  the  place  of  his  birth — the  College  of  Jesus 
at  Rotheram — in  thanksgiving  for  God's  providence  in 
securing  his  own  education.  "  For,"  he  says,  "  there 
came  to  Rotheram,  I  don't  know  by  what  chance,  but  I 
believe  by  the  special  grace  of  God,  a  teacher  of  gram- 
mar, who  taught  me  and  other  youths,  and  by  whose 
means  I  and  others  with  me  rose  in  life.  Where- 
fore desirous  of  returning  thanks  to  our  Saviour,  and 
to  proclaim  the  reason,  and  lest  I  might  seem  ungrate- 
ful and  forgetful  of  God's  benefits  and  from  whence  I 
have  come,  I  have  determined  first  of  all  to  establish 
there  for  ever  a  grammar  master  to  teach  all  gratuitously. 
And  because  I  have  seen  chantry  priests  boarding  with 
lay  people,  one  in  one  place  one  in  another,  to  their 
own  scandal  and  in  some  places  ruin,  I  have  desired,  in 
the  second  place,  to  make  them  a  common  dwelling- 
house.  For  these  reasons  I  have  commenced  to  build 
the  college  of  Jesus,  where  the  head  shall  teach  grammar 
and  the  others  may  board  and  sleep."  Moreover,  as 
he  has  seen,  he  says,  many  unlettered  and  country 
folk  from  the  hills  {rudi  et  montam)  attracted  to  church 
by  the  very  beauty  of  ceremonial,  he  establishes  at 
Rotheram  a  choir-master  and  six  singing  boys  to  add 
to  the  attraction  of  the  services,  and  for  such  of  these 
boys,  who  may  not  want  to  become  priests,  he  endows 
a  master  to  teach  them  the  art  of  writing  and  arithmetic." 
A    merchant    of    Holme,    one    John    Barton,    after 

^  Ibid.,  p.  277.  -  Ibid.,  p.  139,  seqcj. 


396      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

leaving  legacies  to  his  parish  church,  charges  his 
executors  to  pay  the  king's  taxes  for  all  people  of  the 
town  assessed  at  4d.  and  under,  for  two  years  after  his 
death.  John  Barton  was  a  merchant  of  the  staple,  and 
had  made  his  wealth  by  the  wool  trade.  At  Holme 
he  built  "a  fair  stone  house  and  a  fair  chapel  like  a 
parish  church,"  and  to  remind  his  descendants  of  the 
source  whence  their  means  had  come,  and  in  humble 
acknowledgment  of  God's  goodness  to  him,  he  set  in 
the  windows  of  his  home  the  following  posie — 

"  I  thank  God,  and  ever  shall, 
It  is  the  sheep  hath  payed  for  all."  ^ 

As  an  example  of  specific  bequests  for  pious 
purposes,  we  may  take  the  following :  Sir  Gervase 
Clifton  in  1491  gives  many  sums  of  money  to  churches 
in  Yorkshire  and  to  various  chantries  in  Southwell 
Minster.  For  the  use  of  these  latter  also,  he  directs 
that  "  all  the  altar  cloths  of  silk,  a  bed  of  gold  bawdkyne 
and  another  bed  of  russet  satin,  which  belonged  to 
(Archbishop  Boothe  of  York)  be  delivered  to  make 
vestments."-  In  1493-4,  John  Vavasour,  Justice  of 
the  Common  Pleas,  leaves  ;^ioo  in  money  to  the 
monastery  of  EUerton,  to  which  he  says  he  had  pre- 
viously given  all  his  vestments.  He  names  the  Priors 
of  Ellerton  and  Thorneholme  his  executors,  and  tells 
them  that  the  Prior  of  the  Charterhouse  of  Axholme 
has  ;£8oo  of  his  in  his  keeping,  and  also  that  a  chest  of 
his  plate  is  in  charge  of  the  London  Carthusians.^ 

Again    Agnes    Hildyard    of    Beverley,    in    1497-8, 
leaves  "an  old  gold  noble  to  hang  round  the  neck  of 

1  Ibid.,  p.  61  and  7iote.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  69, 

^  Ibid.,  p.  89. 


WILLS,   CHANTRIES,  AND  OBITS         397 

the  image  of  Our  Lady  in  the  church  of  Beverley,"  some 
money   to   purchase   a   mantle    for    the    statue    of    the 
Blessed  Virgin  at  Fisholme,  and  another  gold  piece  for 
the  statue  at  Molescroft.^      About  the  same  time  Lady 
Scrope  of  Harling  left  "to  the  Rood  of  Northdor  my 
heart  of  gold  with  a  diamond  in  the  midst.     To  Our 
Lady  of  Walsingham,  ten  of  my  great  gold  beads  joined 
with  silk  of  crimson  and  gold,  with  a  button  of  gold^ 
tasselled  with  the  same.   ...  To  Our  Lady  of  Pew  ten 
of  the  same  beads  ;  to  St.  Edmund  of  Bury  ten  of  the 
same  ;  to  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury,  ten  of  the  same  • 
to    my   Lord   Cardinal,  ten    aves  with   two   Paternosters 
of  the  same  beads  ;  to  Thomas  Fynchman  ten  aves  and 
two  Paternosters  of  the  same  beads.'"^     Again,  in  1502, 
Elizabeth   Swinburne   bequeathed  to  the  Carmelites  of 
Newcastle  a  piece  of  silver  to  make  a  crown  for  the 
image  of  Our  Lady  at  her  altar  "  where  my  mother  is 
buried,"  and  to  Mount  Grace  a  rosary,  "  fifty  beads  of 
gold,  a  hundred  of  corall,  with  all  the  gaudys  of  gold," 
on  condition  that  she  and  her  mother  might  be  con- 
sidered consorores  of   the  house,  and  that  thirteen  poor 
people  might  be  fed  on  the  day  of  her  burial.^     So,  too, 
a  chain  of  gold  is  left  to  make  a  cup  for  the  Blessed 
Sacrament,  velvet  and  silk  dresses  to  make  vestments,* 
plate  to  make    a   new    chrismatory,    crystal     beads   to 
adorn  the  monstrance  used  on  Corpus  feast  day."^ 

William  Sheffield,  Dean  of  York,  whose  will  is  dated 
1496,  after  some  few  bequests  to  friends,  leaves  the 
residue  to  the  poor,  and  he  thus  explains  the  reason  : 
"Also  I  will  that  the  residue  of  my  goods  be  distri- 
buted among  the  poor  parishioners  in  each  of  the  bene- 

1  Ibid.,  p.  132.  -  Ibid.,  p.  149.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  208. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  215.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  230. 


398      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

fices  I  have  held,  according  to  the  discretion  of  my 
executors,  so  that  they  may  be  bestowed  more  or  less 
in  proportion  to  the  time  of  my  living  and  keeping 
hospitality  in  them  ;  for  the  goods  of  the  church  are 
the  riches  of  the  poor,  and  so  the  distribution  of  church 
goods  is  a  serious  matter  of  conscience,  and  on  those 
badly  disposing  of  them  Jesus  have  mercy." ^ 

The  Vicar  of  Wighill,  William  Burton,  in  1498-9, 
left  a  sum  of  money  to  remain  in  the  hands  of  his 
successors  for  ever  "  to  ease  poor  folk  of  the  parish,  for 
to  pay  their  farms  with,  so  that  the  said  people  set  not 
their  goods  at  wainworth  (i.e.  cartloads — what  they 
would  fetch),  and  that  they  have  a  reasonable  day  to 
pay  the  said  silver  again  duly  and  truly  to  the  Vicar  for 
the  time  being,  and  the  said  Vicar  to  ask  and  keep  eyes 
(aye)  to  the  same  intent,  as  he  will  answer  for  it  at  the 
dreadful  day  of  judgment  betwixt  God  and  the  devil  ; 
and  he  shall  not  lend  the  foresaid  money  for  any  tax  or 
tallage,  nor  for  any  common  purpose  of  the  town,  but 
only  to  the  said  poor  men."  With  kindly  thought  for 
the  young  among  his  old  flock,  the  Vicar  adds  a 
bequest  of  4d.  "  to  every  house  poor  and  rich  among 
the  children."^ 

The  above  is  not  by  any  means  an  isolated  instance 
of  a  sum,  or  sums,  of  money  being  left  to  assist  the 
poorer  members  of  the  Christian  brotherhood,  repre- 
sented by  the  parish,  with  temporary  loans.  One 
document  sets  out  the  working  of  such  a  common 
parish  chest  under  the  supervision  of  the  priest.  The 
original  chest  and  the  necessary  funds  for  starting  this 
work  of  benevolence  were  furnished  by  one  of  the 
parishioners.      In  order  to  maintain  "this  most  pious 

^  Ibid.,  p.  119.  ^  Ibid.,  p.  i6o. 


WILLS,  CHANTRIES,   AND  OBITS         399 

object,"  as  it  is  called,  the  rector  undertakes  to  read 
out  the  name  of  the  original  donor  at  the  "  bedes- 
bidding  "  on  principal  feasts,  together  with  those  of  all 
who  may  subsequently  add  to  the  capital  sum  by  alms 
or  legacies,  in  order  that  people  might  be  reminded  of 
their  duty  to  offer  up  prayers  for  the  eternal  welfare  of 
their  benefactors.  The  chest  was  to  have  three  locks, 
the  keys  being  kept  by  the  rector  and  the  two  wardens. 
Those  who  might  need  to  borrow  temporarily  from  the 
common  stock  to  meet  their  rent,  purchase  of  seed  or 
stock,  or  for  any  other  purpose,  were  to  bring  pledges 
to  the  full  value  of  the  loan,  or  else  to  find  known 
sureties  for  the  amount.  No  single  person  was  to  be 
surety  for  more  than  six  shillings  and  eightpence,  and 
for  wise  and  obvious  reasons  the  parish  priest  was  not 
to  be  allowed  to  stand  security  under  any  circumstances. 
The  loan  was  for  a  year,  and  if  at  the  end  of  that  time 
the  pledge  was  not  redeemed,  it  was  to  be  sold,  but  all 
that  it  might  fetch  over  and  above  the  amount  of  the 
original  loan  was  to  be  returned  to  the  borrower.  ^ 

In  close  connection  with  the  subject  of  wills  in 
pre-Reformation  times  is  that  of  chantries  and  obits. 
Both  these  two  institutions  of  the  later  mediaeval  church 
in  England  have  been  commonly  much  misunderstood 
and  misrepresented.  Most  writers  regard  them  only 
in  the  light  of  the  doctrine  of  Purgatory,  and  as  illus- 
trating the  extent  to  which  the  necessity  of  praying  for 
the  dead  was  impressed  upon  the  people  by  the  eccle- 
siastical authorities,  and  that  with  a  view  to  their  own 
profit.  It  has  come,  therefore,  to  be  believed  that  a 
"  chantry  "  only  meant  a  place  (chapel  or  other  locality) 
connected  with  the  parish   church,  where  masses  were 

1  B.  Mus.  Harl.  MS.  670,  f.  77b. 


400      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

offered  for  the  repose  of  the  soul  of  the  donor,  and 
other  specified  benefactors.  No  doubt  there  were  such 
chantries  existing,  but  to  imagine  that  all  followed  this 
rule  is  wholly  to  mistake  the  purpose  of  such  founda- 
tions. Speaking  broadly,  the  chantry  priests  were  the 
assistant  priests  or,  as  we  should  nowadays  say,  the 
curates  of  the  parish,  who  were  supported  by  the 
foundation  funds  which  benefactors  had  left  or  given 
for  that  purpose,  and  even  not  infrequently  by  the 
contributions  of  the  inhabitants.  To  speak  the  lan- 
guage of  our  own  time  the  system  held  the  place  of 
the  "  additional  curates  "  or  "  pastoral  aid  "  societies. 
For  the  most  part  the  raison  d'etre  of  these  chantry 
priests  was  to  look  after  the  poor  of  the  parish,  to  visit 
the  sick,  and  to  assist  in  the  functions  of  the  parish 
church.  By  universal  custom,  and  even  by  statute 
law  of  the  English  Church,  every  chaplain  and  chantry 
priest,  besides  the  fulfilment  of  the  functions  of  his 
own  special  benefice,  was  bound  to  be  at  the  disposi- 
tion of  the  parish  priest  in  the  common  services  of 
the  parish  church.  His  presence  was  required  in  the 
choir,  vested  in  a  surplice  or  other  ecclesiastical  dress 
proper  to  his  station,  or  as  one  of  the  sacred  ministers 
of  the  altar,  should  his  services  be  so  required.  In 
this  way  the  existence  of  guild  chaplains,  chantry 
priests,  and  others,  added  to  the  dignity  of  the  eccle- 
siastical offices  and  the  splendour  of  the  ceremonial 
in  most  parish  churches  throughout  the  country,  and 
afforded  material  and  often  necessary  assistance  in  the 
working  of  the  parish. 

It  will  give,  perhaps,  a  better  idea  of  the  functions 
of  a  chantry  priest  on  the  eve  of  the  Reformation  than 
can  be  obtained  by  any  description,  to  take  an  example 


WILLS,  CHANTRIES,  AND  OBITS         401 

of  the  foundation  made  for  a  chantry  at  the  altar  of 
Saint  Anne  in  the  church  of  Badsworth.  It  was 
founded  in  15 10  to  pray  for  the  soul  of  Isabella,  wife 
of  William  Vavasour,  and  daughter  of  Robert  Urswick. 
The  charter  deed  ordains  that  the  chaplain  shall  be  a 
secular  priest,  without  other  benefice,  and  that  he  should 
say  a  Requiem  each  week  with  Placebo  and  Dirige.  At 
the  first  lavatory  of  the  Mass  he  is  to  turn  to  the  people 
and  exhort  them  to  pray  for  the  soul  of  the  founder, 
saying  De  Profundis  and  the  prayer  Inclina  Domine. 
Once  every  year  there  is  to  be  an  anniversary  service 
on  Tuesday  in  Easter  week,  when  ten  shillings  and 
eightpence  is  to  be  distributed  to  the  poor  under  the 
direction  of  the  rector.  The  chaplain  is  to  be  learned 
in  grammar  and  plain  song,  and  should  be  present  in 
the  choir  of  the  parish  church  at  Matins,  Mass,  Vespers, 
and  Compline,  with  other  divine  services  on  Sundays 
and  feasts,  when  he  is  to  take  what  part  the  rector  shall 
ordain.  He  is  not  to  be  absent  for  more  than  a  month, 
and  then  only  with  leave  of  the  rector,  by  whom,  for 
certain  specified  offences,  he  may  be  deprived  of  his 
office.  ^ 

In  these  chantries  were  established  services  for  the 
dead  commonly  called  "  obits."  These  were  not,  as  we 
have  been  asked  to  believe,  mere  money  payments  to  the 
priest  for  anniversary  services,  but  were,  for  the  most 
part,  bequests  left  quite  as  much  for  annual  alms  to  the 
poor  as  for  the  celebration  of  those  services.  A  few 
examples  will  illustrate  this  better  than  any  explanation. 
In  the  town  of  Nottingham  there  were  two  chantries 
connected  with  the  parish  church  of  St.  Mary,  that  of 
our  Lady  and  that  called  Amyas  Chantry.     The  former, 

^   Yorkshire  Chantry  Surveys  (Surtees  Soc),  ii.,  preface,  p.  xiv. 

2   C 


402      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

according  to  the  record,  was  founded  "  to  maintain  the 
services  and  to  be  an  aid  to  the  Vicar  and  partly  to 
succour  the  poor;"  the  latter,  to  assist  in  "God's  service," 
and  to  pray  for  William  Amyas  the  founder.  When  the 
commissioners,  in  the  first  year  of  Edward  VI.,  came  to 
inquire  into  the  possession  of  these  chantries,  they  were 
asked  to  note  that  in  this  parish  there  were  "  1400 
houseling  people,  and  that  the  vicar  there  had  no  other 
priests  to  help  but  the  above  two  chantry  priests." 
They  were  not,  of  course,  spared  on  this  account,  for 
within  two  years  the  property,  upon  which  these  two 
priests  were  supported,  had  been  sold  to  two  speculators 
in  such  parcels  of  land — John  Howe  and  John  Brox- 

holme. 

Then  again,  in  the  parish  of  St.  Nicholas,  in  the 
same  town,  we  find  from  the  returns  that  the  members 
of  the  Guild  of  the  Virgin  contributed  to  the  support  of 
a  priest.  In  that  parish  there  were  more  than  200 
houseling  people,  and  as  the  living  was  very  poor,  there 
was  absolutely  no  other  priest  to  look  after  them  but 
this  one,  John  Chester,  who  was  paid  by  the  guild. 
The  king's  officials,  however,  did  not  hesitate  on  this 
account  to  confiscate  the  property.  It  is  needless  to 
adduce  other  instances  of  this  kind,  some  scores  of 
which  might  be  given  in  the  county  of  Nottingham 
alone.  As  an  example  of  "obits"  and  the  purposes 
for  which  they  were  intended,  the  following  instances 
may  be  given,  which  it  must  be  remembered  could  be 
multiplied  to  any  extent.  From  the  returns  of  the  com- 
missioners in  Nottinghamshire  we  find  that  in  the  parish 
of  South  Wheatley  there  were  parish  lands  let  out  to  farm 
which  produced  eighteenpence  a  year,  say  from  eighteen 
shillings  to   a  pound  of  our  money.     Of  this  sum,  one 


WILLS,   CHANTRIES,  AND  OBITS         403 

shilling  was  for  the  poor,  and  sixpence  for  church  lights  ; 
that  is  two-thirds,  or,  say,  i6s.  of  our  money,  was  for  the 
relief  of  the  distressed.  So  in  the  parish  of  Tuxford,  the 
church  "obit"  lands  produced  £1,  5s,  4d.,  or  about 
;^i6  a  year  ;  of  which  i6s.  4d.  was  for  the  poor  and 
9s.  for  the  church  services. 

Mr.  Thorold  Rogers,  speaking  of  the  endowments 
left  by  generations  of  Englishmen  for  the  support  of 
chantries,  obits,  &c.,  says :  "  The  ancient  tenements 
which  are  still  the  property  of  the  London  companies 
were  originally  burdened  with  masses  for  donors.  In 
the  country,  the  parochial  clergy  undertook  the  services 
of  these  chantries  .  .  .  and  the  establishment  of  a  mass 
or  chantry  priest  at  a  fixed  stipend  in  a  church  with 
which  he  had  no  other  relation,  was  a  common  form  of 
endowment.  The  residue,  if  any,  of  the  revenue  de- 
rivable from  these  tenements  was  made  the  common 
property  of  the  guild,  and  as  the  continuity  of  the 
service  was  the  great  object  of  its  establishment,  the 
donor,  like  the  modern  trustee  of  a  life  income,  took 
care  that  there  should  be  a  surplus  from  the  founda- 
tion. The  land  or  house  was  let,  and  the  guild  consented 
to  find  the  ministration  which  formed  the  motive  of  the 
grant."  ^ 

This  is  very  true,  but  it  is  questionable  whether  Mr. 
Thorold  Rogers  appreciated  the  extent  to  which  these 
chantry  funds  were  intended  to  be  devoted  to  purposes 
other  than  the  performance  of  the  specified  religious 
services.  A  couple  of  examples  have  been  given  in 
Nottinghamshire,  and  to  these  may  be  added  one  in 
the  south  of  England.  In  connection  with  the  parish 
church  of  Alton,  in  Hampshire,  there  were,  on  the  eve 

^   The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History,  p.  306. 


404      THE   EVE   OF  THE   REFORMATION 

of  the  Reformation,  six  foundations  for  obits.  The  fol- 
lowing is  the  account  of  these  taken  from  the  chantry 
certificates  made  by  the  king's  commissioners  in  the 
first  year  of  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.:  (i)  "Issues  of 
land  for  an  obit  for  John  Pigott,  growing  and  coming 
out  of  certain  houses  and  lands  in  Alton  for  to  maintain 
for  ever  a  yearly  obit  there,  in  the  tenure  of  Thomas 
Mathew,  of  the  yearly  value  of  23s.  4d. ;  whereof  to  the 
poor  15s.  4d.,  to  the  parish  priest  and  his  clerk  8s.  (2) 
The  same  for  an  obit  for  William  Reding,  of  the  annual 
value  of  15s.,  of  which  the  poor  were  to  have  los.  and 
the  priest  and  his  clerk  5s.  (3)  The  same  for  Alice 
Hacker,  of  the  yearly  value  of  los.,  of  which  the  poor 
were  to  get  7s.  8d.  and  the  priest  2s.  4d.  (4)  Another 
of  the  value  of  4s.,  the  poor  to  get  2s.  lod.  and  the  priest 
IS.  2d.  (5)  Another  for  the  soul  of  Nicholas  Bailey, 
worth  annually  iis.,  and  of  this  7s.  8d.  was  intended 
for  the  poor  and  3s.  4d.  for  the  clergy.  (6)  Another 
for  Nicholas  Crushelon,  worth  annually  4s.  4d.,  the  poor 
to  have  3s.  id.  and  the  priest  is.  3d."  In  this  parish 
of  Alton,  therefore,  these  six  foundations  for  "  obits  "  or 
anniversaries  produced  a  total  of  77s.  8d.,  but  so  far 
from  the  whole  sum  being  spent  upon  priests'  stipends, 
lights,  and  singing  men,  we  find  that  considerably  more 
than  half,  namely  46s.  7d.,  was  bestowed  upon  the  relief 
of  the  poor  of  the  parish.  Or  if  we  take  the  value  of 
money  in  those  days  as  only  twelve  times  that  of  our 
present  money,  out  of  a  total  of  ^3 6,  12s.  some  £2  7,  1 9s. 
went  to  the  support  of  the  poor. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  general  advantages  derived  by 
a  parish  from  the  foundation  of  these  chantries  and 
obits  have  been  commonly  overlooked,  and  the  notion 
that  they  were  intended  for  no  other  purpose  than  pro- 


WILLS,   CHANTRIES,  AND  OBITS         405 

curing  prayers  for  the  dead,  and  that  in  fact  they  served 
no  other  end,  is  altogether  misleading  and  erroneous. 
Without  the  assistance  of  the  clergy,  so  supported  by 
the  generosity  of  those  who  left  money  for  these  foun- 
dations, the  religious  services  in  many  of  the  parish 
churches  of  England  in  pre-Reformation  times  could 
not  have  been  so  fittingly  or  even  adequately  provided 
for.  Wherever  information  is  available  this  view  is 
borne  out,  and  it  is  altogether  to  mistake  the  true  bear- 
ing of  facts  to  suppose  that  in  suppressing  the  chantries 
and  appropriating  the  endowment  of  obits  the  officials  of 
Edward  VI.  merely  put  an  end  to  superstitious  prayers 
for  the  souls  in  Purgatory.  In  reality  they  deprived 
the  poor  of  much  property  left  by  deceased  persons  for 
their  relief,  and  took  away  from  every  parish  in  England 
the  assistance  of  the  unbeneficed  clergy  who  had  hitherto 
helped  to  support  the  dignity  of  God's  worship  and  look 
after  the  souls  of  the  people  in  the  larger  districts. 

One  instance  may  be  given  to  illustrate  how  far  the 
chantry  clergy  actually  took  part  in  the  work  of  the 
parish.  At  Henley  on  Thames,  on  the  eve  of  the 
Reformation,  there  were  seven  chapels  or  chantries — 
namely,  those  of  Our  Lady,  St.  Katherine,  St.  Clement, 
St.  Nicholas,  St.  Ann,  St.  John,  and  St.  Leonard.  These 
were  all  supported  by  various  bequests,  and  the  four 
priests  who  served  them  all  resided  in  a  common  house 
situated  in  the  churchyard  known  as  "  the  chapel-house," 
or  "the  four  priest  chambers."  The  disposition  of  the 
services  of  these  chaplains  was  apparently  in  the  hands 
of  the  "  Warden  and  the  commonalty  "  of  the  township, 
and  for  the  convenience  of  the  people  they  arrange,  for 
example,  that  the  chaplain  of  the  Lady  altar  shall  say 
his  mass  there  every  day  at  six  in  the  morning,  and  that 


4o6      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

the  priest  in  charge  of  St.  Katherine's  shall  always  begin 
his  at  eight.^ 

"  To  maintain  God's  service  "  is  perhaps  the  most 
common  reason  assigned  to  King  Edward's  commission 
for  the  existence  of  a  chantry,  or  chantries,  in  connec- 
tion with  a  parish  church.  Thus  at  Edwinstowe,  in 
Nottinghamshire,  there  was  a  chantry  chapel  a  mile 
from  the  parish  church  known  as  Clipston  Chantry. 
The  priest  was  John  Thompson,  and  he  had  ^^5  a  year, 
and  "  hath  no  mansion  but  a  parlour  under  the  chapel."  ^ 
At  Harworth  in  the  same  county  there  was  the  hospital 
of  St.  Mary's  of  Bawtree,  founded  by  Robert  Morton  to 
serve  the  people  two  miles  from  the  parish  church. 
The  priest  had  a  mansion  and  close,  "  and  had  to  say 
Mass  every  morning  before  sunrise,  for  such  as  be 
travellers  by  the  way  and  to  maintain  God's  service 
there,  which  towne  is  also  a  thoroughfare  towne."  ^  At 
Hayton,  still  in  the  same  county,  also  two  miles  from 
the  parish  church,  was  the  chantry  of  Tilne,  founded 
for  a  priest  to  serve  the  villages  of  North  and  South 
Tilne  "  to  celebrate  mass  and  minister  the  sacraments 
to  the  inhabitants  adjoining,  for  that  they  for  the  great- 
ness of  the  waters  cannot  divers  times  in  the  year  repair 
to  the  parish  church."  For  ''  the  water  doth  abound 
so  much  within  the  said  hamlets  that  the  inhabitants 
thereof  can  by  no  means  resort  into  their  parish  church 
of  Hayton,  being  two  miles  distant  from  the  said  chapel, 
neither  for  christening,  burying,  nor  other  rights." 


>>  4 


'  J.  S.  Burn,  History  of  Henley  on  Thames,  pp.  173-175- 

-  R.  O.  Chantry  Certificate,  No.  13  (account  for  year  37  H.  VIII.),  No.  17. 

^  Ibid.,  No.  30  and  No.  95,  M.  6. 

^  Ibid.,  No.  37,  M.  12 ;  also  No.  95,  M.  7  ;  and  No.  13  (38)  Mins.  Accts. 
2,  3,  Ed.  VI.,  shows  that  the  king  received  ;^ii,  19s.  8d.  for  the  property  of 
this  chapel,  which  was  granted  to  Robert  Swift  and  his  brother. 


WILLS,   CHANTRIES,  AND  OBITS         407 

The  purposes  which  these  chantry  priests  were 
intended  to  serve  is  seen  to  be  the  same  all  over  Eng- 
land. To  take  Suffolk  for  example  :  at  Redgrave,  near 
Eye,  or  rather  at  Botesdale,  a  hamlet  about  a  mile  and 
a  half  from  Redgrave,  there  was  a  chapel  of  "  ancient 
standing  for  the  ease  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  said  street, 
which  was  first  built  at  their  cost,  whereunto  do  belong 
no  other  than  the  chapel  yard."  The  "street"  con- 
sisted of  forty-six  householders,  and  by  estimation 
a  hundred  and  sixty  houselings.  It  was  "  a  common 
thoroughfare  and  hath  a  liberty  of  market."  These 
matters  "  the  poor  inhabitants  "  submitted  to  the  King  ; 
it  is  unnecessary  to  say  without  success.^  At  Leven- 
ham  the  alderman  of  St.  Peter's  Guild  held  certain 
lands  to  find  a  priest  who  was  to  teach  the  children  of 
the  town,  and  was  to  be  "  secondary  to  the  curate,  who 
without  help  of  another  priest  is  not  able  to  serve  the 
cure  there,"  as  there  were  two  thousand  souls  in  the 
district.'  So,  too,  at  Mildenhall  there  was  a  chantry 
established,  as  the  parish  was  long  and  populous,  ''  hav- 
ing a  great  number  of  houseling  people  and  sundry 
hamlets,  divers  of  them  having  chapels  distant  from  the 
parish  church  one  mile  or  two  miles,  where  the  said 
priest  did  sing  Mass  sundry  festival  days  and  other  holy 
days,  and  also  help  the  curate  to  minister  the  Sacraments, 
who  without  help  were  not  able  to  discharge  his  cure."  ^ 
At  Southwold  were  four  cottages  left  by  one  John  Perce 
for  an  '*  obit."  The  property  produced  twenty  shillings 
a  year,  and  of  this  sum  ten  shillings  were  to  be  distri- 
buted to  the  poor  ;  eight  shillings  to  maintain  the  town 
and  pay  the  taxes  of  the  poor,  and  two  shillings  to  be 

1  R.  O.  Chantry  Certificate,  No.  45  (ni.  i.  d.). 
-  Ibid.  ^  Ibid. 


4o8       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

paid  to  the  parson  and  his  clerk  for  their  services  in 
church.  There  was  also  in  the  same  town  a  tenement 
called  Skilman's,  intended  to  supply  a  stipendiary  priest 
for  sixteen  years  to  the  parish,  and  after  that  to  go  to 
the  town.  The  sixteen  years  were  up  when  the  royal 
commissioners  visited  the  town,  and  the  whole  sum  was 
then  being  spent  on  the  town.  In  vain  the  people 
pleaded  that  "  it  was  to  be  considered  that  the  said 
town  of  Southwold  is  a  very  poor  town,  whereupon  the 
sea  lies  beating  daily,  to  the  great  ruin  and  destruction 
of  the  said  town,  if  that  the  power  and  violence  of  the 
same  were  not  broken  by  the  maintenance  of  jetties 
and  piers  there,  and  that  the  maintenance  of  the  haven 
and  bridge  of  the  same  town  is  likewise  very  chargeable." 
The  marsh  belonging  to  the  said  tenement,  called  Skil- 
man's, is  let  to  the  poor  inhabitants  of  the  same  town, 
every  man  paying  for  his  cowgate  by  the  year  2od.  only 
"  to  the  great  relief  of  the  poor."  ^ 

So,  too,  the  Aldermen  of  the  Guild  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  in  Beccles  held  lands  to  supply  a  priest  to  assist 
in  the  parish  for  ninety-nine  years,  to  find  money  to 
pay  the  tenths,  fifteenths,  and  other  taxes,  and  for 
other  charitable  purposes.  The  property  brought  in 
-^'lo,  9s.  4d.,  and  each  year  the  poor  received  forty 
shillings ;  thirty  shillings  went  to  pay  for  the  taxes, 
and  the  rest — some  £(i — to  the  priest.  In  order  to 
induce  the  king  to  leave  this  fund  untouched,  the  com- 
missioners of  1547  are  asked  to  note  "that  Beccles  is 
a  great  and  populous  town,"  there  being  eight  hundred 
houselings,  "  and  the  said  priest  is  aiding  unto  the 
curate  there,  who  without  help  is  not  able  to  discharge 
the  said  cure."  "" 

1  Ibid.  (18).  -  Ibid.  (20). 


WILLS,  CHANTRIES,  AND  OBITS         409 

The  case  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds  is  particularly 
distressing.  Amongst  other  charities,  lands  had  been 
left  by  will  or  given  by  various  benefactors  to  find 
priests  to  serve  St.  Mary's,  to  sing  "  the  Jesus  Mass," 
and  to  act  as  chaplain  at  the  Lady  altar.  Property  also 
was  given  in  charge  of  St.  Nicholas  Guild  of  the  annual 
value  of  25s.  4d.,  of  which  sum  22s.  was  to  be  distributed 
to  the  poor  of  the  town,  and  the  rest  was  to  go  to  the 
annual  anniversary  services  for  members  of  the  guild. 
More  property,  too,  had  been  left  by  one  Margaret 
Oldham  for  a  priest  to  say  Mass  in  the  church  of  St, 
James  on  the  week  days,  and  in  the  jail  on  the  Sundays, 
and  to  find  the  poor  prisoners  in  wood  for  a  fire  during 
winter  months.  There  were  several  other  similar  bene- 
factions of  the  same  kind,  and  the  parishioners  of  St. 
James's  church  "  gathered  weekly  of  their  devotion  " 
the  stipend  of  a  priest  paid  to  say  "  the  morrow  Mass  " 
— that  is,  the  Mass  at  daybreak  intended  for  those  who 
had  to  go  early  to  their  daily  work.  When  the  royal 
commissioners  came  on  behalf  of  the  said  Edward  VI. 
to  gather  in  these  spoils  at  Bury,  they  were  asked 
to  forward  to  the  authorities  in  London  the  following 
plea  for  pity  :  "  It  is  to  be  considered  that  the  said 
town  of  Bury  is  a  great  and  populous  town,  having  in 
it  two  parish  churches,  and  in  the  parishes  of  the  same 
above  the  number  of  3000  houseling  persons,  and  a 
great  number  of  youth.  And  the  king's  majesty  hath 
all  the  tithes  and  all  the  profits  yearly  coming  and 
growing  within  the  same  parishes,^  finding  two  parish 
priests  there.  And  the  said  two  parish  priests  are  not 
able  to  serve  and  discharge  the  said  cures  without  aid 
and  help  of   other    priests.     And  further,  there   is   no 

^  This  was  owing  to  the  recent  dissolution  of  the  Abbey. 


41  o       THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

school,  nor  other  like  foundation,  within  the  said  town, 
nor  within  twenty  miles  of  it,  for  the  virtuous  education 
and  bringing  up  of  youth,  nor  any  hospital  or  other 
like  foundation  for  the  comfort  and  relief  of  the  poor, 
of  which  there  is  an  exceeding  great  number  within  the 
said  town  other  than  what  are  before  mentioned,  of 
which  the  said  incumbents  do  now  take  the  whole  ^ 
yearly  revenues  and  profits,  and  distribute  no  part 
thereof  to  the  aid  and  comfort  or  relief  of  the  said 
poor  people. 

"  In  consideration  whereof  it  may  please  the  king's 
majesty  of  his  most  charitable  benignity,  moved  with 
pity  in  that  behalf,  to  convert  the  revenues  and  profits 
of  the  sum  of  the  said  promotions  into  some  godly 
foundation,  whereby  the  said  poor  inhabitants,  daily 
there  multiplying,  may  be  relieved,  and  the  youth  in- 
structed and  brought  up  virtuously,  or  otherwise,  ac- 
cording to  his  most  godly  and  discreet  wisdom,  and  the 
inhabitants  shall  daily  pray  to  God  for  the  prosperous 
preservation  of  his  most  excellent  majesty,  long  to 
endure." " 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the  petition  had 
no  effect.  At  Bury,  as  indeed  all  over  England,  the 
claims  of  the  sick  and  poor  were  disregarded  and  the 
money  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  crown.  The 
hospitals  that  mediaeval  charity  had   erected  and  sup- 

^  In  one  case  it  is  said  :  "  Mem. :  The  decay  of  rent  is  caused  by  the 
fact  that  most  came  from  lands  in  possession  of  the  abbey ;  since  the  dissolu- 
tion these  have  been  sold,  and  the  purchasers  do  not  allow  that  they  are  liable 
to  pay."  The  hospital  called  St.  Parvell's,  without  the  south  gate,  also 
had  been  dissolved  by  Henry  VIII.,  and  the  property  granted  to  Sir  George 
Somerset  (6th  July,  37  H.  VIII.).  It  had  produced  ;^i6,  13s.  4d.  a  year,  with 
£^,  los.  "paid  out  of  the  late  abbey  of  Bury  to  the  sustentation  of  the  poor." 
The  whole  charity,  of  course,  by  the  dissolution  of  the  abbey  and  the  grant  of 
the  remaining  property  as  above,  had  come  to  an  end. 

2  Ibid.  (No.  44). 


WILLS,  CHANTRIES,   AND   OBITS         411 

ported  were  destroyed  ;  the  youth  remained  untaught  ; 
the  poor  were  deprived  of  the  charity  which  had 
been,  as  it  was  supposed,  secured  to  them  for  ever  by 
the  wills  of  generations  of  Catholic  benefactors  ;  the 
poor  prisoners  in  the  jail  at  Bury  had  to  go  without 
their  Sunday  Mass  and  their  winter  fire  ;  whilst  the 
money  that  had  hitherto  supported  chaplains  and 
chantry  priests  to  assist  the  parish  priests  in  the  care 
of  their  districts  was  taken  by  the  crown. 

For  Yorkshire  the  certificates  of  the  commissioners 
have  been  published  by  the  Surtees  Society.  The 
same  impression  as  to  the  utility  and  purpose  of  the 
chantry  and  other  assisting  priests  may  be  gathered 
from  almost  every  page.  For  example,  the  chantry 
of  St.  Katherine  in  the  parish  church  of  Selby : 
"  The  necessity  thereof  is  to  do  divine  service,  and 
help  the  parish  priest  in  time  of  necessity  to  minister 
sacraments  and  sacramentals  and  other  divine  ser- 
vices." .  .  .  For  "the  said  parish  of  Selby  is  a  great 
parish,  having  but  one  curate,  and  in  the  same  parish 
is  a  thousand  househng  people  ;  and  the  said  curate  has 
no  help  in  time  of  necessity  but  only  the  said  chauntry 
priest."  ^ 

Again  :  "  Two  chantries  of  our  Lady  in  the  parish 
church  of  Leeds,  '  founded  by  the  parishioners  there  to 
serve  in  the  choir  and  to  minister  sacraments  and  other 
divine  service,  as  shall  be  appointed  by  the  vicar  and 
other  honest  parishioners  there,  which  they  do.  .  .  . 
The  necessity  thereof  is  to  do  divine  service,  to  help  the 
curate,  and  minister  the  Sacraments,  having  3000 
houseling  people.'  "  " 

^    Yorkshire  Chantry  Surveys  (Surtees  Soc),  p.  213. 
-  Ibid.,  p.  214. 


412       THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

In  the  same  parish  church,  the  chantry  of  St.  Mary 
Magdalene  was  "  founded  by  WilHam  Evers,  late  vicar 
of  Leeds,  to  pray  for  the  soul  of  the  founder  and  all 
Christian  souls,  to  minister  at  the  altar  of  St.  Mary 
Magdalene,  to  keep  one  yearly  obit,  with  seven  shillings 
to  be  distributed,  and  to  serve  in  the  choir  at  divine 
service  all  holy  days  and  festival  days,  as  appears  by 
the  foundation  deed  thereof,  dated  a.d.  1524."  ^ 

One  more  example  may  be  taken  out  of  the  hundreds 
in  these  volumes :  "  The  chantry,  or  donative,  within 
the  chapel  of  Holbecke  in  the  parish  of  Leeds,  'the 
incumbent  is  used  to  say  daily  mass  there  and  is  taken 
for  a  stipendiary  priest  paying  tithes.  And  there  is  a 
great  river  between  the  said  parish  church  and  the 
chapel,  whereby  they  can  by  no  means  often  pass  to 
the  said  church.  .  .  .  The  said  chantry  is  distant  from 
the  said  parish  church  one  mile.  The  necessity  thereof 
is  to  do  divine  service  according  to  the  foundation.' 

A  few  words  enforcing  the  lesson  to  be  learned 
from  these  extracts  taken  from  the  preface  to  the  second 
part  of  these  interesting  Yorkshire  records  may  be  here 
given.  Mr.  Page,  the  editor,  says  :  "  Up  to  the  time  of 
the  Reformation  nearly  all  education  was  maintained 
by  the  church,  and  when  the  chantries  were  dissolved 
practically  the  whole  of  the  secondary  education  of  the 
country  would  have  been  swept  away,  had  not  some 
provision  for  the  instruction  of  the  middle  and  lower 
classes  been  made  by  continuing,  under  new  ordinances, 
some  of  the  educational  endowments  which  pious 
founders  had  previously  provided."  ^ 

"The    next    most   important   class    of    foundations, 

^  Ibid.,  p.  215.  -  Ibid.,  p.  216. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  II. 


WILLS,   CHANTRIES,  AND  OBITS         413 

some  of  which  were  continued  under  the  commission 
.  .  .  consisted  of  the  chapels  of  ease,  which  were  much 
required  in  extensive  parishes  with  a  scattered  popula- 
tion, and  had  been  generally  founded  by  the  parishioners 
for  their  own  convenience.  It  seems,  therefore,  that 
the  dissolution  of  these  chapels  was  a  peculiar  hardship. 
As  early  as  1233,  the  Pope  granted  licence  to  the  arch- 
bishop of  York  to  build  oratories  or  chapels  and  to 
appoint  to  them  priests,  in  places  so  distant  from  the 
parish  churches  that  the  people  could  with  difficulty 
attend  divine  service,  and  the  sick  died  before  the  priest 
could  get  to  them  to  administer  the  last  sacraments. 
The  necessity  for  these  chapels  of  ease  was  especially 
felt  in  Yorkshire,  where  the  inhabitants  of  so  many 
outlying  hamlets  were  cut  off  from  their  parish  churches 
in  winter  time  by  impassable  roads  and  flooded  rivers, 
which  is  the  reason  time  after  time  assigned  by  the  com- 
missioners, for  the  necessity  of  the  existence  of  such 
chapels  ;  and  yet  comparatively  few  of  them  were  recom- 
mended for  continuance  by  Sir  Walter  Mildmay  and 
Robert  Kelway  in  the  returns  to  the  commission.. 
Possibly,  it  was  the  loss  of  the  endowments  of  Ayton 
chapel  which  occasioned  the  insurrection  at  Leamer 
.  .  .  which  chapel  the  inhabitants  so  piously  kept  up- 
afterwards  at  their  own  expense."  ^ 

"  In  most  cases,  the  chantry  priest  seems  to  have 
acted  in  much  the  same  capacity  in  a  parish  as  that 
now  occupied  by  the  curate  ;  he  assisted  the  parish 
priest  in  performing  mass,  hearing  confessions  and 
visiting  the  sick,  and  also  helped  in  the  ordinary 
services  of  the  church;  the  few  only  were  licensed  to 
preach,  like  the  schoolmaster  at  Giggleswick.     In  the 

^  Ibid.,  p.  12, 


414      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

Cathedral  Church  at  York,  besides  praying  for  the  soul 
of  his  founder  and  all  Christian  souls,  each  chantry, 
priest  had  to  be  present  in  the  choir  in  his  habit  of  a 
parson  on  all  principal  and  double  feast  days,  Sundays, 
and  nine  lections,  at  Matins,  Mass,  Evensong,  and  pro- 
cessions, when  he  had  to  read  lessons,  begin  anthems, 
and  to  minister  at  the  high  altar  as  should  be  appointed 
to  him  by  the  officers  of  the  choir.  Besides  these 
purely  ecclesiastical  duties,  very  many  of  the  chantry 
priests  were  bound  to  teach  a  certain  number  of  the 
children  of  the  neighbourhood,  which  was  the  origin  of 
most  of  our  Grammar  schools."  ^ 

1  Ibid.,  p.  13. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

PILGRIMAGES   AND   RELICS 

Pilgrimages  and  the  honour  shown  to  relics  are 
frequently  pointed  out  as,  with  Indulgences,  among 
the  most  objectionable  features  of  the  pre-Reformation 
ecclesiastical  system.  It  is  assumed  that  on  the  eve  of 
the  religious  changes  the  abuses  in  these  matters  were 
so  patent,  that  no  voice  was,  or  indeed  could  have  been, 
raised  in  their  defence,  and  it  is  asserted  that  they  were 
swept  away  without  regret  or  protest  as  one  of  the  most 
obvious  and  necessary  items  in  the  general  purification 
of  the  mediaeval  church  initiated  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.  That  they  had  indeed  been  tolerated  at  all  even 
up  to  the  time  of  their  final  overthrow  was  in  part,  if 
not  entirely,  due  to  the  clergy,  and  in  particular  to  the 
monks  who,  as  they  derived  much  pecuniary  benefit 
from  encouraging  such  practices,  did  not  scruple  to 
inculcate  by  every  means  in  their  power  the  spiritual 
advantages  to  be  derived  from  them.  That  the  objec- 
tionable features  of  these  so-called  works  of  piety  had 
long  been  recognised,  is  taken  for  granted,  and  the 
examinations  of  people  suspected  of  entertaining  Wy- 
clifite  opinions  are  pointed  to  as  proof  that  earnest  men 
were  alive  to  these  abuses  for  more  than  a  century 
before  religion  was  purified  from  them.  As  conclusive 
evidence  of  this,  the  names,  too,  of  Chaucer  for  early 
times,  and  of  Erasmus  for  the  Reform  period,  are  given 


4i6      THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

as  those  whose  condemnation  and  even  scornful  rejec- 
tion of  such  practices  cannot  be  doubted.  It  becomes 
important,  then,  for  a  right  understanding  of  the  mental 
attitude  of  the  people  generally  to  the  existing  ecclesi- 
astical system  at  the  time  of  its  overthrow,  to  see  how 
far  the  outcry  against  pilgrimages  and  the  devotion  to 
relics  was  really  popular,  and  what  were  the  precise 
objections  taken  to  them  by  the  innovators. 

It  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  importance  attached 
to  pilgrimages  by  our  pre-Reformation  forefathers. 
From  very  early  times  the  practice  was  followed 
with  eagerness,  not  to  say  with  devotion,  and  in- 
cluded not  merely  visits  to  the  shrines  situated  within 
the  country  itself,  but  long  and  often  perilous  journeys 
into  foreign  lands — to  Compostella,  Rome,  and  to  the 
Holy  Land  itself.  These  foreign  pilgrimages  of  course 
could  be  undertaken  only  by  the  rich,  or  by  those  for 
whom  the  requisite  money  was  found  by  some  one 
unable  to  undertake  the  journey  in  person.  Not  in- 
frequently the  early  English  wills  contain  injunctions 
upon  the  executors  to  defray  the  cost  of  some  poor 
pilgrim  to  Spain,  to  Rome,  or  to  some  of  the  noted 
shrines  on  the  Continent.  The  English  love  for  these 
works  of  piety  in  nowise  showed  any  sign  of  deca- 
dence even  right  up  to  the  period  of  change.  Books  fur- 
nishing intending  pilgrims  with  necessary  information, 
and  vocabularies,  even  in  Greek,  were  prepared  to  assist 
them  in  their  voyages.  The  itineraries  of  William 
Wey,  printed  by  the  Roxburghe  Club,  give  a  very 
good  idea  of  what  these  great  religious  pilgrimages  must 
have  been  like  at  the  close  of  the  fifteenth  century.  In 
1462  Wey  was  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  describes  how 
joyfully    the    pilgrims    on    landing    at    Jaffa    sang    the 


PILGRIMAGES  AND  RELICS  417 

"  Urbs  beata  Jerusalem  in  faburthyn."  In  1456  he 
took  part  in  a  large  English  pilgrimage  to  St.  James 
of  Compostella,  leaving  Plymouth  with  a  shipload  of 
English  fellow-pilgrims  on  May  17.  William  Wey's 
ship  was  named  the  Mary  White,  and  in  company  with 
them  six  other  English  ships  brought  pilgrims  from 
Portsmouth,  Bristol,  Weymouth,  Lymington,  and  a 
second  from  Plymouth.  They  reached  Corunna  on 
May  2ist,  and  Compostella  for  the  great  celebration  of 
Trinity  Day.  Wey  was  evidently  much  honoured  by 
being  pointed  out  to  the  church  officials  as  the  chief 
Englishman  of  note  present,  and  he  was  given  the  post 
of  first  bearer  of  the  canopy  in  the  procession  of  the 
Blessed  Sacrament.  Four  out  of  the  six  poles  were 
carried  by  his  countrymen,  whom  he  names  as  Austill, 
Gale,  and  Fulford. 

On  their  return  the  pilgrims  spent  three  days  at 
Corunna.  They  were  not  allowed  to  be  idle,  but  reli- 
gious festivities  must  have  occupied  most  of  their  time. 
On  Wednesday,  the  eve  of  Corpus  Christi  day,  there 
was  a  procession  of  English  pilgrims  throughout  the 
city  and  a  mass  in  honour  of  the  Blessed  Virgin.  On 
Corpus  Christi  itself  their  procession  was  in  the  Fran- 
ciscan church,  and  a  sermon  was  preached  in  English 
by  an  English  Bachelor  in  Theology  on  the  theme,  Ecce 
ego;  vocasti  me.  "  No  other  nation,"  says  William  Wey, 
somewhat  proudly,  "  had  these  special  services  but  the 
English."  In  the  first  port  there  were  ships  belonging 
to  English,  Welsh,  Irish,  Norman,  French,  and  Breton, 
and  the  English  alone  had  two  and  thirty. 

Such  journeys  were  not,  of  course,  in  those  days 
devoid  of  danger,  especially  from  sickness  brought  on, 
or  developed  in  the  course  of  the  travels.     Erasmus,  in 

2  D 


41 8      THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

his  Colloquy  on  Rash  Vows,  speaks  of  losing  three  in  a 
company,  "  One  dying  on  the  way  commissioned  us 
to  salute  Peter  (in  Rome)  and  James  (at  Compostella) 
in  his  name.  Another  we  lost  at  Rome,  and  he  desired 
that  we  should  greet  his  wife  and  children  for  him. 
The  third  we  left  behind  at  Florence,  his  recovery 
entirely  despaired  of,  and  I  imagine  he  is  now  in 
heaven."  That  this  account  of  the  mortality  among 
pilgrims  is  not  exaggerated  is  shown  in  the  diary  of  Sir 
Richard  Torkington,  Rector  of  Mulbarton,  in  Norfolk. 
In  15 17  he  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Jerusalem,  and  records 
on  "the  25th  of  August,  that  was  Saynt  Bertolmew's 
day,  deceased  Robert  Crosse  of  London,  and  was 
buried  in  the  churchyard  of  Salyus  (in  the  island  of 
Cyprus)  ;  and  the  27th  day  of  August  deceased  Sir 
Thomas  Tappe,  a  priest  of  the  West  country,  and  was 
cast  over  the  board  ;  as  were  many  more  whose  souls 
God  assoyl ;  and  then  there  remained  in  the  ship  four 
English  priests  more."  ^ 

If  Englishmen  went  abroad  to  the  celebrated 
shrines,  foreigners  in  turn  found  their  way  to  the 
no  less  renowned  places  of  pilgrimage  in  England. 
Pilgrims'  inns  and  places  of  rest  were  scattered  over 
the  great  roads  leading  to  Glastonbury,  Walsingham, 
and  Canterbury,  and  other  "  holy  spots  "  in  this  island, 
and  at  times  these  places  were  thronged  with  those  who 
came  to  pay  their  devotion.  At  one  time  we  are  told 
that  more  than  a  hundred  thousand  pilgrims  were  to- 
gether in  the  city  of  Canterbury  to  celebrate  one  of  the 
Jubilee  celebrations  of  the  martyr  St.  Thomas  ;  whilst 
the  road  to  Walsingham  was  so  much  frequented,  that 

^  GentleinaiH s  Magazi7te,  vol.  Ixxxii.,  ii.  318.    Quoted  in  J.  Gough  Nichol's 
PilgritnageSf  &c.     Introduction,  xcv. 


PILGRIMAGES  AND  RELICS  419 

in  the  common  mind  the  very  "  milk  way "  had  been 
set  by  Providence  in  the  heaven  to  point  the  path  to 
Our  Lady's  shrine. 

With  the  very  question  of  pilgrimages,  Sir  Thomas 
More  actually  deals  in  the  first  portion  of  his  Dyalogne, 
and  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  any  authority  who 
should  carry  greater  weight.  He  first  deals  with  the 
outcry  raised  by  the  followers  of  Luther  against  the 
riches  which  had  been  lavished  upon  the  churches,  and 
in  particular  upon  the  shrines  containing  the  relics  of 
saints. 

Those  who  so  loudly  condemn  this  devotion  shown 
by  the  church  to  the  saints  should  know,  he  says  "  that 
the  church  worships  not  the  saints  as  God,  but  as  God's 
servants,  and  therefore  the  honour  that  is  done  to  them 
redoundeth  principally  to  the  honour  of  their  Master  ; 
just  as  by  common  custom  of  people  we  sometimes,  for 
their  master's  sake,  reverence  and  make  great  cheer  for 
people  to  whom  perhaps  except  for  this  we  would  not 
have  said  '  good  morrow.' 

"  And  sure  if  any  benefit  or  alms,  done  to  one  of 
Christ's  poor  folk  for  his  sake,  be  reputed  and  accepted 
by  His  high  goodness,  as  done  unto  Himself :  and  if 
whosoever  receiveth  one  of  His  apostles  or  disciples  re- 
ceives Himself,  every  wise  man  may  well  think  that 
in  like  manner  he  who  honours  His  holy  saints  for  His 
sake,  honours  Himself,  except  these  heretics  think  that 
God  were  as  envious  as  they  are  themselves,  and  that 
He  would  be  wroth  to  have  any  honour  done  to  any 
other,  though  it  thereby  redoundeth  unto  Himself.  In 
this  matter  our  Saviour  Christ  clearly  declares  the  con- 
trary, for  He  shows  Himself  so  well  content  that  His 
holy  saints   shall  be  partakers  of   His  honour  that  He 


420       THE   EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

promises  His  apostles  that  at  the  dreadful  doom  (when 
He  shall  come  in  His  high  majesty)  they  shall  have 
their  honourable  seats  and  sit  with  Himself  upon  the 
judgment  of  the  world.  Christ  also  promised  that  Saint 
Mary  Magdalene  should  be  worshipped  through  the 
world  and  have  here  an  honourable  remembrance 
because  she  bestowed  that  precious  ointment  upon 
His  holy  head.  When  I  consider  this  thing  it 
makes  me  marvel  at  the  madness  of  these  heretics 
that  bark  against  the  old  ancient  customs  of  Christ's 
church,  mocking  at  the  setting  up  of  candles,  and  with 
foolish  facetiousness  (fallacies)  and  blasphemous  mock- 
ery demand  whether  God  and  His  saints  lack  light,  or 
whether  it  be  night  with  them  that  they  cannot  see 
without  a  candle.  They  might  as  well  ask  what  good 
did  that  ointment  do  to  Christ's  head  ?  But  the  heretics 
grudge  the  cost  now  as  their  brother  Judas  did  then, 
and  say  it  were  better  spent  on  alms  upon  a  poor  folk, 
and  thus  say  many  of  them  who  can  neither  find  in 
their  heart  to  spend  on  the  one  nor  the  other.  And 
some  spend  sometimes  on  the  one  for  no  other  intent, 
but  the  more  boldly  to  rebuke  against  and  rail  against 
the  other." 

After  pointing  out  how  riches  were  lavished  on  the 
temple  by  God's  special  ordinance.  Sir  Thomas  More 
continues  :  "  If  men  will  say  that  the  money  were  better 
spent  among  poor  folk  by  whom  He  {i.e.  God)  setteth 
more  store  as  the  living  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
made  by  His  own  hand  than  by  the  temples  of  stone 
made  by  the  hand  of  men,  this  would  perhaps  be 
true  if  there  were  so  little  to  do  it  with  that  we  should 
be  driven  by  necessity  to  leave  the  one  undone.  But 
God  gives  enough  for  both,  and  gives  divers  men  divers 


PILGRIMAGES  AND  RELICS  421 

kinds  of  devotion,  and  all  to  His  pleasure.  Luther,  in  a 
sermon  of  his,  wished  that  he  had  in  his  hand  all  the 
pieces  of  the  holy  cross,  and  said  if  he  had  he  would 
throw  them  where  the  sun  should  never  shine  on  them. 
And  for  what  worshipful  reason  would  the  wretch  do 
such  villainy  to  the  cross  of  Christ  ?  Because,  as  he 
says,  there  is  so  much  gold  now  bestowed  on  the  gar- 
nishing of  the  pieces  of  the  cross  that  there  is  none  left 
for  poor  folks.  Is  not  this  a  high  reason  ?  As  though 
all  the  gold  that  is  now  bestowed  about  the  pieces  of 
the  holy  cross  would  not  have  failed  to  be  given  to  poor 
men  if  they  had  not  been  bestowed  on  the  garnishing 
of  the  cross  ;  and  as  though  there  was  nothing  lost 
except  what  is  bestowed  about  Christ's  cross.  Take 
all  the  gold  that  is  spent  about  all  the  pieces  of  Christ's 
cross  through  Christendom  (albeit  many  a  good  Christian 
prince  and  other  godly  people  have  honourably  garnished 
many  pieces  of  it),  yet  if  all  the  gold  were  gathered 
together  it  would  appear  a  poor  portion  in  comparison 
with  the  gold  that  is  bestowed  upon  cups — what  do  we 
speak  of  cups  for  ?  in  which  the  gold,  though  it  is  not 
given  to  poor  men,  is  saved,  and  may  be  given  in  alms 
when  men  will,  which  they  never  will ;  how  small  a 
portion,  ween  we,  were  the  gold  about  all  the  pieces  of 
Christ's  cross,  if  it  were  compared  with  the  gold  that  is 
quite  cast  away  about  the  gilding  of  knives,  swords,  &c." 
Our  author  then  goes  on  to  put  in  the  mouth  of  the 
"  objector  "  the  chief  reasons  those  who  were  then  the 
advocates  of  the  religious  changes  were  urging  against 
pilgrimages  to  the  shrines  of  saints  and  to  special  places 
of  devotion  to  our  Blessed  Lady.  Protesting  that  he 
had,  of  course,  no  desire  to  see  the  images  of  the  saints 
treated  in  any  way  disrespectfully,  the  objector  declares 


422      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

that  "  yet  to  go  in  pilgrimages  to  them,  or  to  pray  to 
them,  not  only  seemed  vain,  considering  that  (if  they 
can  do  anything)  they  can  do  no  more  for  us  among 
them  all  than  Christ  can  Himself  alone  who  can  do  all 
things,  nor  are  they  so  ready  to  hear  (if  they  hear  us 
at  all)  as  Christ  that  is  everywhere."  .  .  .  Moreover,  to 
go  a  pilgrimage  to  one  place  rather  than  to  another 
"  seems  to  smell  of  idolatry,"  as  implying  that  God  was 
not  so  powerful  in  one  place  as  He  is  in  another,  and, 
as  it  were,  making  God  and  His  saints  "  bound  to  a 
post,  and  that  post  cut  out  and  carved  into  images. 
For  when  we  reckon  we  are  better  heard  by  our  Lord 
in  Kent  than  at  Cambridge,  at  the  north  door  of  Paul's 
than  at  the  south  door,  at  one  image  of  our  Lady  than 
at  another,"  is  it  not  made  plain  that  we  "  put  our  trust 
and  confidence  in  the  image  itself,  and  not  in  God  and 
our  Lady,"  and  think  of  the  image  and  not  of  what  the 
image  represents. 

Further,  "  men  reckon  that  the  clergy  gladly  favour 
these  ways,  and  nourish  this  superstition  under  the  name 
and  colour  of  devotion,  to  the  peril  of  people's  souls  for 
the  lucre  and  temporal  advantage  that  they  themselves 
receive  from  the  offerings"  (p.  120). 

Lest  it  may  be  thought  that  these  objections  to 
places  of  pilgrimage  were  merely  such  as  Sir  Thomas 
More  invented  to  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  "  objector  " 
in  order  to  refute  them,  the  reader  may  like  to  have  the 
words  of  a  known  advocate  of  the  new  ideas.  Lance- 
lot Ridley,  in  his  expositions  of  some  of  the  Epistles, 
states  his  views  very  clearly.  "  Ignorant  people,"  he 
writes,  "have  preferred  the  saints  before  God,  and  put 
more  trust,  more  confidence,  (look  for)  more  help  and 
succour,  in  a  saint  than  in  God.     Yea,  I  fear  me  that 


PILGRIMAGES  AND  RELICS  423 

many  have  put  their  help  and  succour  in  an  image  made 
of  stone  or  of  wood  by  men's  hand,  and  have  done 
great  honour  and  reverence  to  the  image,  believing 
that  great  virtue  and  great  holiness  was  in  that  image 
above  other  images.  Therefore  that  image  must  have 
a  velvet  coat  hanged  all  over  with  brooches  of  silver, 
and  much  silver  hanged  about  it  and  on  it,  with  much 
light  burning  before  it,  and  with  candles  always  burning 
before  it.  I  would  no  man  (should  put  out  the  light) 
in  contempt  of  the  saint  whose  image  there  is,  but  I 
would  have  this  evil  opinion  out  of  the  simple  hearts 
that  they  should  esteem  images  after  the  value  they  are, 
and  put  no  more  holiness  in  one  image  than  in  another, 
no  more  virtue  in  one  than  in  another.  It  holds  the 
simple  people  in  great  blindness,  and  makes  them  put 
great  trust  and  (esteem)  great  holiness  in  images,  because 
one  image  is  called  our  Lady  of  Grace,  another  our 
Lady  of  Pity,  another  our  Lady  of  Succour  or  Comfort  ; 
the  Holy  Rood  of  such  a  place,  &c."  And  this  he  main- 
tained, though  he  did  not  condemn  images  generally 
in  churches.  These  he  thought  useful  to  remind  people 
of  God's  saints  and  their  virtues,  and  ''  to  stir  up  our 
dull  hearts  and  slothful  minds  to  God  and  to  goodness." 
What  he  objected  to  chiefly  was  the  special  places  of 
pilgrimage  and  special  images  to  which  more  than 
ordinary  devotion  was  shown.^ 

^  Lancelot  Rydley.  Exposition  in  the  Epistell  of  Jude.  London, 
Thomas  Gybson,  1538,  sig.  B.  v.  In  sermons  and  writings,  pre-Reforma- 
tion  ecclesiastics  strove  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  the  people  the  true 
principles  of  devotion  to  shrines  and  relics  of  the  saints.  To  take  one 
example  beyond  what  is  given  above.  In  The  Art  of  Good  Lyvyng  and 
Good  Deyng,  printed  in  1503,  the  writer  says  :  "  We  should  also  honour  the 
places  that  are  holy,  and  the  relics  of  holy  bodies  of  saints  and  their  images, 
not  for  themselves,  but  for  that  in  seeing  them  we  show  honour  to  what  it 
represents,  the  dread  reverence,  honour  and  love  of  God,  after  the  intention 
of  Holy  Church,  otherwise  it  were  idolatry  "  (fol.  6). 


424      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

In  another  of  his  Expositions,  printed  in  1540,  Ridley 
again  states  his  objections  to  the  places  of  pilgrimage. 
"  Some  think,"  he  writes,  "  that  they  have  some  things 
of  God,  and  other  part  of  saints,  of  images,  and  so 
divide  God's  glory,  part  to  God  and  part  to  an  image, 
of  wood  or  of  stone  made  by  man's  hand.  This  some 
ignorant  persons  have  done  in  times  past,  and  thanked 
God  for  their  health  and  the  blessed  Lady  of  Wal- 
singham,  of  Ipswich,  St.  Edmund  of  Bury,  Etheldred  of 
Ely,  the  Lady  of  Redbourne,  the  Holy  Blood  of  Hayles, 
the  Holy  Rood  of  Boxley,  of  Chester,  &c.,  and  so  other 
images  in  this  realm  to  the  which  have  been  much 
pilgrimage  and  much  idolatry,  supposing  the  dead 
images  could  have  healed  them  or  could  have  done 
something  for  them  to  God.  For  this  the  ignorant 
have  crouched,  kneeled,  kissed,  bobbed  and  licked  the 
images,  giving  them  coats  of  cloth,  of  gold,  silver,  and 
of  tissue,  velvet,  damask,  and  satin,  and  suffered  the 
living  members  of  Christ  to  be  without  a  russet  coat 
or  a  sackcloth  to  keep  them  from  the  cold."  ^ 

Again  in  another  place  he  says  that  his  great 
objection  to  images  is  not  that  they  may  not  be 
good  in  themselves  and  as  a  reminder  of  the  holiness 
of  the  saints,  but  that  they  are  used  as  a  means  of 
making  money.  "  Who  can  tell,"  he  writes,  "  half  the 
ways  they  have  found  to  get,  yea  to  extort  money  from 
men  by  images,  by  pardons,  by  pilgrimages,  by  indul- 
gences, &c.  ...  all  invented  for  money."  The  above 
passages  may  be  taken  as  fair  samples  of  the  outcry 
against  shrines  and  pilgrimages  raised  by  the  English 
followers  of  Luther  and  the  advocates  of  the  religious 
changes  generally.      It  will  be  noticed  that  the  ground 

^  A  Commentary  in  Eiiglyshe  upon  the  Ephesians,  1 540,  sig.  A.  ii. 


PILGRIMAGES  AND  RELICS  425 

of  the  objections  was  in  reality  only  the  same  as  that 
which  induced  them  to  declare  against  any  honour 
shown  to  images,  whether  of  Christ  or  His  saints. 
There  is  no  suggestion  of  any  special  abuses  connected 
with  particular  shrines  and  places  of  pilgrimage,  such 
as  is  often  hinted  at  by  those  who  refer  to  Chaucer  and 
Erasmus.  In  addition  to  the  general  ground  of  objec- 
tion, the  only  point  raised  in  regard  to  pilgrimages  by 
the  advocates  for  their  suppression  was  that  money  was 
spent  upon  them  which  might  have  been  bestowed  more 
profitably  on  the  poor,  and  that  the  clergy  were  enriched 
by  the  offerings  made  at  the  shrines  visited.  Sir  Thomas 
More's  reply  to  the  latter  suggestion  has  been  already 
given,  and  elsewhere  his  views  as  to  the  general  ques- 
tion of  the  danger  of  people  mistaking  the  nature  of  the 
honour  shown  to  images  of  the  saints  have  been  stated 
at  length.  With  regard  to  his  approval  of  the  principle 
of  pilgrimages  there  is  no  room  for  doubt. 

''  If  the  thing  were  so  far  from  all  frame  of  right 
religion,"  he  says,  "  and  so  perilous  to  men's  souls,  I 
cannot  perceive  why  the  clergy,  for  the  gain  they  get 
thereby,  would  suffer  such  abuses  to  continue.  For, 
first,  if  it  were  true  that  no  pilgrimage  ought  to  be 
used,  no  image  offered  to,  nor  worship  done  nor 
prayer  offered  to  any  saint,  then — if  all  these  things 
were  all  undone  (if  that  were  the  right  way,  as  I  wot 
well  it  were  wrong),  then  to  me  there  is  little  question 
but  that  Christian  people  who  are  in  the  true  faith  and 
in  the  right  way  Godward  would  not  thereby  in  any 
w^ay  slack  their  good  minds  towards  the  ministers  of 
His  church,  but  their  devotion  towards  them  would 
more  and  more  increase.  So  that  if  by  this  way  they 
now  get  a  penny  they  would  not  then  fail  to  receive  a 


426      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

groat  ;  and  so  should  no  lucre  be  the  cause  to  favour 
this  way  if  it  be  wrong,  whilst  they  could  not  fail  to 
win  more  by  the  right." 

"  Moreover,  look  through  Christendom  and  you  will 
find  the  fruit  of  those  offerings  a  right  small  part  of  the 
living  of  the  clergy,  and  such  as,  though  some  few 
places  would  be  glad  to  retain,  yet  the  whole  body 
might  easily  forbear  without  any  notable  loss.  Let  us 
consider  our  own  country,  and  we  shall  find  that  these 
pilgrimages  are  for  the  most  part  in  the  hands  of  such 
religious  persons  or  of  such  poor  parishes  as  have  no 
great  authority  in  the  convocations.  Besides  this  you 
will  not  find,  I  suppose,  that  any  Bishop  in  England 
has  the  profit  of  even  one  groat  from  any  such  offering 
in  his  diocese.  Now,  the  continuance  or  breaking  of 
this  manner  and  custom  stands  them  specially  in  the 
power  of  those  who  take  no  profit  by  it.  If  they 
believed  it  to  be  (as  you  call  it)  superstitious  and 
wicked  they  would  never  suffer  it  to  continue  to  the 
perishing  of  men's  souls  (something  whereby  they 
themselves  would  destroy  their  own  souls  and  get 
no  commodity  either  in  body  or  goods).  And  beyond 
this,  we  see  that  the  bishops  and  prelates  themselves 
visit  these  holy  places  and  pilgrimages,  and  make  as 
large  offerings  and  (incur)  as  great  cost  in  coming  and 
going  as  other  people  do,  so  that  they  not  only  take  no 
temporal  advantage,  but  also  bestow  their  own  money 
therein.  And  surely  I  believe  this  devotion  so  planted 
by  God's  own  hand  in  the  hearts  of  the  whole  Church, 
that  is  to  say,  not  the  clergy  only,  but  the  whole  con- 
gregation of  all  Christian  people,  that  if  the  spirituality 
were  of  the  mind  to  give  it  up,  yet  the  temporality 
would  not  suffer  it." 


PILGRIMAGES  AND   RELICS  427 

It  would  be  impossible,  without  making  extensive 
quotations,  to  do  justice  to  Sir  Thomas  More's  argu- 
ment in  favour  of  the  old  Catholic  practice  of  pilgrim- 
ages. He  points  out  that  the  whole  matter  turns  upon 
the  question  whether  or  no  Almighty  God  does  manifest 
His  power  and  presence  more  in  one  place  of  His  world 
than  in  another.  That  He  does  so,  he  thinks  cannot  be 
questioned  ;  why  He  should  do  so,  it  is  not  for  us  to 
guess,  but  the  single  example  of  the  Angel  and  the  pool 
of  Bethsaida  related  in  St.  John's  Gospel  is  sufficient 
proof  of  the  fact — at  least  to  Sir  Thomas  More's  intel- 
ligence. Moreover,  he  thinks  also  that  in  many  cases 
the  special  holiness  of  a  place  of  pilgrimage  has  been 
shown  by  the  graces  and  favours,  and  even  miracles, 
which  have  been  granted  by  God  at  that  particular 
spot,  and  on  the  "  objector "  waiving  this  argument 
aside  on  the  plea  that  he  does  not  believe  in  modern 
miracles,  More  declares  that  what  is  even  more  thaa 
miracles  in  his  estimation  is  the  "  common  belief  in 
Christ's  Church  "  in  the  practice. 

As  to  believing  in  miracles;  they,  like  every  other 
fact,  depend  on  evidence  and  proof.  It  is  unreasonable  in 
the  highest  degree  to  disbelieve  everything  which  we 
have  not  seen  or  which  we  do  not  understand. 
Miracles,  like  everything  else,  must  be  believed  on 
the  evidence  of  credible  witnesses.  What  in  their  day, 
he  says,  is  believed  in  by  all  would  have  been  deemed 
impossible  a  century  or  two  before  ;  for  example,  that 
the  earth  is  round  and  "  sails  in  mid-air,"  and  that 
"  men  walk  on  it  foot  to  foot "  and  ships  sail  on  its  seas 
"  bottom  to  bottom."  Again,  "  It  is  not  fifty  years  ago," 
he  says,  "  since  the  first  man,  as  far  as  men  have  heard, 
came  to   London  who  ever  parted  the  silver  gilt  from 


42  8      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

the  silver,  consuming  shortly  the  silver  into  dust 
with  a  very  fair  water."  At  first  the  gold  and  silver 
smiths  laughed  at  the  suggestion  as  absurd  and  im- 
possible. Quite  recently  also  More  had  been  told  that 
it  was  possible  to  melt  iron  and  make  it  '^  to  run  as  silver 
or  lead  doeth,  and  make  it  take  a  print."  More  had 
never,  he  says,  seen  this,  but  he  had  seen  the  new  inven- 
tion of  drawing  out  silver  into  thread-like  wires.  The 
"  objector"  was  incredulous,  and  when  More  went  on  to 
tell  him  that  if  a  piece  of  silver  had  been  gilded,  it 
could  be  drawn  out  with  the  gilding  into  gilt  wires,  he 
expressed  his  disbelief  in  the  possibility  of  such  a  thing, 
and  was  hardly  more  satisfied  that  he  was  not  being 
deceived  when  the  process  was  shown  to  him  the  next 
day. 

These  and  such  like  things,  argues  More,  show  us 
that  our  knowledge  is,  after  all,  very  limited,  and  that 
while  some  supposed  miracles  may  be  doubted,  it  is 
most  unreasonable  to  doubt  or  deny  the  possibility  of 
miracles  generally.  If  nature  and  reason  tell  us  there 
is  a  God,  the  same  two  prove  that  miracles  are  not  im- 
possible, and  that  God  can  act  when  He  wills  against 
the  course  of  nature.  Whether  He  does  in  this  or  that 
case  is  plainly  a  matter  of  evidence.  The  importance 
of  Sir  Thomas  More's  opinion  on  the  matter  of  Pilgrim- 
age does  not,  of  course,  rest  upon  the  nature  of  his 
views,  which  were  those  naturally  of  all  good  Catholic 
sons  of  Holy  Church,  but  upon  the  fact  that,  in  face  of 
the  objections  which  were  then  made  and  which  were 
of  the  kind  to  which  subsequent  generations  have 
been  accustomed,  so  learned  and  liberal  a  man  as  he 
was,  did  not  hesitate  to  treat  them  as  groundless,  and  to 
defend  the  practice  as  it  was  then  known  in  England. 


PILGRIMAGES  AND  RELICS  429 

That  there  may  have  been  "  abuses "  he  would  have 
no  doubt  fully  admitted,  but  that  the  "abuses"  were 
either  so  great  or  so  serious  as  to  be  any  reasonable 
ground  against  the  "  use  "  he  would  equally  have  indig- 
nantly denied. 

No  less   clear   and   definite  are  his  opinions  as  to 
"relics"  and  the  honour  shown  them.    The  "adversary" 
in   the  Dyalogue  takes   up  the   usual  objections    urged 
against   the  reverence  shown    to    the    remains    of    the 
saints,    and    in    particular    to    the    wealth    which    was 
lavished  upon  their  shrines.     "  May  the  taking  up  of  a 
man's  bones,"  he  says,  "  and  setting  his  carcase  in  a  gay 
shrine,  and  then  kissing  his  bare  scalp,  make  a  man  a 
saint  ?     And  yet  are  there  some  unshrined,  for  no  man 
knoweth  where  they  lie.     And  men  doubt  whether  some 
ever  had  any  body  at  all  or  not,  but  to  recompense 
that  again  some  there  are  who  have  two  bodies,  to  lend 
one  to  some  good  fellow  that  lacketh  his.     For  .  .  . 
some  one  body  lies  whole  in  two  places  asunder,  or  else 
the  monks  of  the  one  be  beguiled.     For  both  places 
plainly  affirm  that  it  lieth  there,  and  at  either  place  they 
show  the  shrine,  and  in  the  shrine  they  show  a  body 
which    they    say   is    the    body,    and    boldly   allege    old 
writings   and  miracles  also  for  the  proof  of  it.     Now 
must  he  confess  that   either   the  miracles   at  the   one 
place  be  false  and  done  by  the  devil,  or  else  that  the 
same  saint  had  indeed  two  bodies.     It  is  therefore  likely 
that  a  bone  worshipped  for  a  relic  of  some  holy  saint 
in  some  place  was  peradventure   '  a  bone  (as   Chaucer 
says)  of  some  holy  Jew's  sheep.'  "      More's  "  adversary  " 
then    goes   on  to  say  that    our   Lord  in  reproving  the 
Pharisees    for    "making    fresh    the    sepulchres    of    the 
prophets  "  condemns  the  "  gay  golden  shrines  made  for 


430      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

saints'  bodies,  especially  when  we  have  no  certainty  that 
they  are  saints  at  all."  ^ 

What  all  this  really  amounts  to,  replies  More,  is  not 
that  your  reasons  would  condemn  honour  and  worship 
to  true  relics  of  the  saints,  but  that  "  we  may  be  de- 
ceived in  some  that  we  take  for  saints — except  you 
would  say  that  if  we  might  by  any  possibility  mistake 
some,  therefore  we  should  worship  none."  Few  people 
would  say  this,  and  "  I  see,"  says  More,  "  no  great 
peril  to  us  from  the  danger  of  a  mistake.  If  there 
came,  for  example,  a  great  many  of  the  king's  friends 
into  your  country,  and  for  his  sake  you  make  them  all 
great  cheer ;  if  among  them  there  come  unawares  to 
you  some  spies  that  were  his  mortal  enemies,  wearing 
his  badge  and  seeming  to  you  and  so  reported  as  his 
familiar  friends,  would  he  blame  you  for  the  good  cheer 
you  made  his  enemies  or  thank  you  for  the  good  cheer 
you  gave  his  friends  ? "  He  then  goes  on  at  great 
length  to  suggest  that,  as  in  the  case  of  the  head  of  St. 
John  the  Baptist  in  which  portions  only  existing  in  each 
place  are  each  called  "  the  head,"  so,  very  frequently, 
only  a  portion  of  the  body  of  a  saint  is  called  "  the  body." 
He  mentions  having  himself  been  present  at  the  abbey 
of  Barking  thirty  years  before  {i.e.  in  1498),  when  a 
number  of  relics  were  discovered  hidden  in  an  old 
image,  which  must  have  been  put  there  four  or  five 
hundred  years  since  "  when  the  abbey  was  burned  by  the 
infidels."  He  thinks  that  in  this  way  the  names  of  relics 
are  frequently  either  lost  or  changed.  But  he  adds, 
"  the  name  is  not  so  very  requisite  but  that  we  may 
mistake  it  without  peril,  so  that  we  nevertheless  have 
the  relics  of  holy  men  in  reverence." 

^  p.  190. 


PILGRIMAGES  AND  RELICS  431 

In  replying  to  Tyndale  also,  More  declares  that  he 
had  never  in  all  his  life  held  views  against  relics  of  the 
saints  or  the  honour  due  to  their  holy  images.  Tyndale 
had  charged  him  with  being  compromised  by  the  words 
used  by  Erasmus  in  the  Encomium  Morice,  which  was 
known  to  have  been  composed  in  More's  house,  and 
was  commonly  regarded  as  almost  the  joint  work  of 
the  two  scholars.  If  there  were  anything  like  this  in 
the  Morice — any  words  that  could  mean  or  seem  to 
mean  anything  against  the  true  Catholic  devotion  to 
relics  and  images — then  More  rejects  them  from  his 
heart.  But  they  are  not  my  words,  he  adds,  "  the  book 
being  made  by  another  man,  though  he  were  my  dar- 
ling never  so  dear  "  (p.  422).  But  the  real  truth  is  that 
in  the  Morice  Erasmus  never  said  more  or  meant  more 
than  to  "jest  upon  the  abuses  of  such  things." 

In  this  regard  it  is  of  interest  to  understand  what 
was  the  real  opinion  of  Erasmus  in  regard  to  devotions 
to  particular  saints  and  their  images  and  relics.  This 
is  all  the  more  important,  as  most  people  regard  the 
account  of  his  two  pilgrimages  to  Walsingham  and  to 
Canterbury  as  full  and  conclusive  evidence  of  his  senti- 
ments. In  his  tract  Enchiridion  Militis  Christiani,  published 
at  Louvain  in  15 18,  his  views  are  stated  with  absolute 
clearness.  "  There  are  some,"  he  says,  "  who  honour 
certain  saints  with  some  special  ceremonies.  .  .  One 
salutes  St.  Christopher  each  day,  and  only  in  presence 
of  his  image.  Why  does  he  wish  to  see  it  ?  Simply 
because  he  will  then  feel  safe  that  day  from  any  evil 
death.  Another  honours  Saint  Roch — but  why  ?  Be- 
cause he  thinks  that  he  will  drive  away  infection  from 
his  body.  Others  murmur  prayers  to  St.  Barbara  or 
St.   George,    so   as   not   to   fall  into  the  hands  of  any 


432      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

enemy.  One  man  fasts  for  St.  Apollonia,  not  to  have 
toothache.  Some  dedicate  a  certain  portion  of  their 
gains  to  the  poor  so  that  their  merchandise  is  not 
destroyed  in  shipwreck,"  &c.  ^ 

Our  author's  point  is  that  in  these  and  such-Hke 
things  people  pray  for  riches,  &c.,  and  do  not  think 
much  about  the  right  use  of  them;  they  pray  for  health 
and  go  on  living  evil  lives.  In  so  far  such  prayers  to 
the  saints  are  mere  superstitions,  and  do  not  much  differ 
from  the  pagan  superstitions;  the  cock  to  ^sculapius, 
the  tithe  to  Hercules,  the  bull  to  Neptune.  "  But,"  he 
says,  "  I  praise  those  who  ask  from  St.  Roch  a  life  pro- 
tected from  disease  if  they  would  consecrate  that  life  to 
Christ.  I  would  praise  them  more  if  they  would  pray 
only  for  increased  detestation  of  vice  and  love  virtue. 
I  will  tolerate  infirmity,  but  with  Paul  I  show  the 
better  way."  He  would  think  it,  consequently,  a  more 
perfect  thing  to  pray  only  for  grace  to  avoid  sin  and  to 
please  God,  and  to  leave  life  and  death,  sickness,  health 
and  riches  to  Him  and  His  will. 

"  You,"  he  says  farther  on,  "  venerate  the  saints, 
you  rejoice  to  possess  their  relics,  but  you  despise 
the  best  thing  they  have  left  behind  them,  namely, 
the  example  of  a  pure  life.  No  devotion  is  so  pleas- 
ing to  Mary  as  when  you  imitate  her  humility  ;  no  reli- 
gion is  so  acceptable  to  the  saints  and  so  proper  in 
itself  as  striving  to  copy  their  virtue.  Do  you  wish 
to  merit  the  patronage  of  Peter  and  Paul  ?  Imitate  the 
faith  of  the  one  and  the  charity  of  the  other  and  you  will 
do  more  than  if  you  had  made  ten  journeys  to  Rome. 
Do  you  wish  to  do  something  to  show  high  honour  to 
St.  Francis  ?     You  are  proud,  you  are  a  lover  of  riches, 

^  opera  o?iinia  (ed.  Leclerc),  torn,  v.,  col.  26. 


PILGRIMAGES  AND   RELICS  433 

you  are  quarrelsome  ;  give  these  to  the  saint,  rule  your 
soul  and  be  more  humble  by  the  example  of  Francis  ; 
despise  filthy  lucre,  and  covet  rather  the  good  of  the 
soul.  Leave  contentions  aside  and  overcome  evil  by 
good.  The  saint  will  receive  more  honour  in  this  way 
than  if  you  were  to  burn  a  hundred  candles  to  him. 
You  think  it  a  great  thing  if  clothed  in  the  habit  of  St. 
Francis  you  are  borne  to  the  grave.  This  dress  will 
not  profit  you  when  you  are  dead  if,  when  alive,  your 
morals  were  unlike  his." 

"  People,"  he  continues,  "  honour  the  relics  of  St. 
Paul,  and  do  not  trouble  to  listen  to  his  voice  still 
speaking.  They  make  much  of  a  large  portion  of  one 
of  his  bones  looked  at  through  a  glass,  and  think  little 
of  honouring  him  really  by  understanding  what  he 
teaches  and  trying  to  follow  that."  It  is  the  same  so 
often  with  the  honour  shown  to  the  crucifix.  "  You 
honour,"  he  says,  "  the  representation  of  Christ's  face 
fashioned  of  stone  or  of  wood  or  painted  in  colours, 
the  image  of  His  mind  ought  to  be  more  religiously 
honoured,  which,  by  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  is 
set  forth  in  the  gospels.  No  Apelles  ever  sketched  the 
form  and  figure  of  a  human  body  in  such  a  perfect 
way  as  to  compare  with  the  mental  image  formed  in 
prayer." 

Erasmus  then  passes  on  to  speak  at  length  of  what 
should  lie  at  the  foundation  of  all  true  devotion  to  the 
saints.  The  spirit  which  actuates  is  that  which  matters. 
To  put  up  candles  to  images  of  the  saints  and  not 
to  observe  God's  laws  ;  to  fast  and  to  abstain  and  not  to 
set  a  guard  on  the  tongue,  to  give  way  to  detraction 
and  evil  speaking  of  all  kinds  ;  to  wear  the  religious 
habit  and  to  live  the   life  of  a  worldling  under  it ;  to 

2  E 


434      THE  EVE  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

build  churches  and  not  to  build  up  the  soul ;  to  keep 
Sunday  observances  externally  but  not  to  mind  what 
the  spirit  gives  way  to — these  are  the  things  that  really 
matter.  "  By  your  lips  you  bless  and  in  your  heart 
you  curse.  Your  body  is  shut  up  in  a  narrow  cell, 
and  in  thought  you  wander  over  the  whole  world. 
You  listen  to  God's  word  with  the  ears  of  your  body; 
it  would  be  more  to  the  purpose  if  you  listened  in- 
wardly. What  doth  it  profit  not  to  do  the  evil  which 
you  desire  to  accomplish  ?  What  doth  it  profit  to  do 
good  outwardly  and  to  do  the  opposite  inwardly  ?  Is 
it  much  to  go  to  Jerusalem  in  the  body  when  in  the 
spirit  it  is  to  thee  but  Sodom  and  Egypt  and  Babylon  ?  "^ 
In  his  tract  De  amabili  Ecdesice  concordia,  printed  in 
1533,  Erasmus  lays  down  the  same  principle.  It  is,  he 
writes,  a  pious  and  good  thing  to  believe  that  the  saints 
who  have  worked  miracles  in  the  time  of  their  lives  on 
earth,  can  help  us  now  that  they  are  in  heaven.  As 
long  as  there  is  no  danger  of  real  superstition,  it  is 
absurd  to  try  to  prevent  people  invoking  the  saints. 
Though  superstition  in  the  cultus  of  the  saints  is,  of 
course,  to  be  prevented,  "  the  pious  and  simple  affection 
is  sometimes  to  be  allowed  even  if  it  be  mixed  with 
some  error."  As  for  the  representations  of  the  saints 
in  churches,  those  who  disapprove  of  them  should  not 
for  that  reason  "  blame  those  who,  without  superstition, 
venerate  these  images  for  the  love  of  those  they  repre- 
sent, just  as  a  newly-married  woman  kisses  a  ring  or 
present  left  or  sent  by  her  absent  spouse  out  of  affec- 
tion for  him."  Such  affection  cannot  be  displeasing  to 
God,  since  it  comes  not  from  superstition,  but  from  an 
abundance  of  affectionate  feeling,  and  exactly  the  same 

'  Col.  37. 


PILGRIMAGES  AND  RELICS  435 

view  should  be  taken  of  the  true  devotion  shown  to 
the  relics  of  the  saints,  provided  that  it  be  ever  borne 
in  mind  that  the  highest  honour  that  can  be  paid  to 
them  consists  in  imitation  of  their  lives. 

Considering  the  importance  of  "  indulgences "  or 
"  pardons,"  as  they  were  frequently  called,  in  the  Re- 
formation controversies,  it  is  curious  that  very  little  is 
made  of  them  in  the  literature  of  the  period  preceding 
the  religious  changes.  If  we  except  the  works  of  pro- 
fessed followers  of  Luther,  there  is  hardly  any  trace  of 
serious  objection  being  raised  to  the  fundamental  idea 
of  "  indulgences  "  in  their  true  sense.  Here  and  there 
may  be  found  indications  of  some  objection  to  certain 
abuses  which  had  been  allowed  to  creep  into  the  system, 
but  these  proceeded  from  loyal  sons  of  the  Church 
rather  than  from  those  ill  affected  to  the  existing 
ecclesiastical  authority,  or  those  who  desired  to  see 
the  abolition  of  all  such  grants  of  spiritual  favours. 
The  lawyer  Saint-German,  for  instance,  may  be  taken 
as  an  example  of  the  acute  layman,  who,  although 
professing  to  be  a  Catholic  and  an  obedient  son  of 
the  Church,  was  credited  by  his  contemporaries  with 
holding  advanced  if  not  somewhat  heterodox  views  on 
certain  matters  of  current  controversy.  What  he  has 
to  say  about  "  pardons  "  and  "  indulgences  "  is  neither 
very  startling  nor  indeed  very  different  from  what  all 
serious-minded  churchmen  of  that  day  held.  He  con- 
sidered that  the  people  generally  were  shocked  at 
finding  "  the  Pope  and  other  spiritual  rulers  "  granting 
"  pardons  "  for  the  payment  of  money.  This,  he  con- 
sidered, had  been  brought  prominently  into  notice  at 
the  time  he  was  writing,  by  the  indulgences  granted 
to  those  who  should  contribute  to  the  building  of  St. 


436       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

Peter's  when  "  it  has  appeared  after,  evidently  that  it 
has  not  been  disposed  to  that  use.  And  that  has  caused 
many  to  think  that  the  said  pardons  were  granted  rather 
of  covetousness  than  of  charity,  or  for  the  health  of  the 
souls  of  the  people.  And  thereupon  some  have  fallen 
in  a  manner  into  despising  "  pardons  "  as  though  par- 
dons "  granted  upon  such  covetousness  would  not 
avail  .  .  .  and  verily  it  were  a  great  pity  that  any 
misliking  of  pardons  should  grow  in  the  hearts  of  the 
people  for  any  misdemeanour  in  the  grantor  or  other- 
wise, for  they  are  right  necessary.  And  I  suppose  that 
if  certain  pardons  were  granted  freely  without  money, 
for  the  saying  of  certain  appointed  prayers,  then  all 
misliking  of  pardons  would  shortly  cease  and  vanish 
away."  ^ 

Christopher  Saint-German  speaks  much  in  the 
same  way  as  to  the  evil  of  connecting  payment  of 
money  with  the  granting  of  indulgences,  in  the  \vork 
in  connection  with  which  his  name  is  chiefly  known, 
A  Dyaloge  in  English  between  a  Student  and  a  Doctor  of 
Divinity.  "  If  it  were  so  ordered  by  the  Pope,"  he 
writes,  "  that  there  might  be  certain  general  pardons 
of  full  remission  in  diverse  parts  of  the  realm,  which 
the  people  might  have  for  saying  certain  orisons  and 
prayers  without  paying  any  money  for  it,  it  is  not 
unlikely  that  in  a  short  time  there  would  be  very  few 
that  would  find  any  fault  with  '  pardons.'  For  verily 
it  is  a  great  comfort  to  all  Christian  people  to  remember 
that  our  Lord  loved  His  people  so  much  that  to  their 
rehef  and  comfort  leave  behind  Him  so  great  a  treasure 
as  is  the  power  to  grant  pardons,  which,  as  I  suppose, 

■*  A  treatise  concerning  the  division  between  the  spiritttalitie  and  the  tein- 
poralitie.     London,  R.  Redman  (1532?),  fol.  27. 


.PILGRIMAGES  AND   RELICS  437 

next  unto  the  treasure  of  His  precious  body  in  the 
Sacrament  of  the  altar,  may  be  accounted  among  the 
greatest,  and  therefore  he  would  labour  greatly  to  his 
own  hurt  and  to  the  great  heaviness  of  all  others  also 
who  would  endeavour  to  prove  that  there  was  no  such 
power  left  by  God."  ^ 

In  the  literature  of  the  period,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, there  is  nothing  to  show  that  the  true  nature  of 
a  "  pardon  "  or  indulgence  was  not  fully  and  commonly 
understood.  There  is  no  evidence  that  it  was  in  any 
way  interpreted  as  a  remission  of  sin,  still  less  that  any 
one  was  foolish  enough  to  regard  it  as  permission  to 
commit  this  or  that  offence  against  God.  Tyndale, 
indeed,  had  suggested  that  by  purchasing  an  indulgence 
''thou  mayest  quench  almost  the  terrible  fire  of  hell  for 
three  halfpence."  But  Sir  Thomas  More  meets  the 
point  directly.  "  Nay,  surely,"  he  says,  "  that  fire  is 
not  so  lightly  quenched  that  folk  upon  the  boldness  of 
pardons  should  stand  out  of  the  fear  of  purgatory.  For 
though  the  sacrament  of  penance  is  able  to  put  away 
the  eternal  (nature)  of  the  pain,  yet  the  party  for  all 
that  has  cause  to  fear  both  purgatory  and  hell  too,  lest 
some  default  on  his  own  part  prevented  God  working 
such  grace  in  him  in  the  Sacrament  as  should  serve  for 
this.  So,  though  the  pardon  be  able  to  discharge  a 
man  of  purgatory,  yet  there  may  be  such  default  in  the 
party  to  whom  the  pardon  is  granted  that  although 
instead  of  three  halfpence  he  gives  three  hundred 
pounds,  still  he  may  receive  no  pardon  at  all,  and 
therefore  he  cannot  be  out  of  fear  of  purgatory,  but 
ever  has  cause  to  fear  it.  For  no  man  without  a 
revelation  can  be  sure  whether  he  be  partaker  of  the 

1  Dyaloge  in  Englyshe,  1 531.     Part  3,  fol.  23. 


438      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

pardon  or  not,  though  he  may  have  and  ought  to  have 
both  in  that  and  every  good  thing  good  hope."  ^ 

Bishop  Gardiner  in  1546,  in  writing  against  George 
Joye,  incidentally  makes  use  of  some  strong  expressions 
about  the  granting  of  pardons  for  the  payment  of  money, 
and  blames  the  friars  as  being  instrumental  in  spreading 
them.  He  has  been  asserting  that  by  every  means  in 
his  power  the  devil,  now  in  one  way  and  now  in 
another,  attempts  to  prevent  men  from  practising  the 
good  works  necessary  for  salvation.  "  For  that  pur- 
pose," he  says,  "  he  procured  out  pardons  from  Rome, 
wherein  heaven  was  sold  for  a  little  money,  and  to 
retail  that  merchandise  the  devil  used  friars  for  his 
ministers.  Now  they  be  all  gone  with  all  their  trum- 
pery ;  but  the  devil  is  not  yet  gone,  for  now  the  cry  is 
that  '  heaven  needs  no  works  at  all,  but  only  belief, 
only,  only,  and  nothing  else.'  "  ^ 

This,  after  all,  was  very  little  more  than  the  abuse 
which  previously  was  pointed  out  by  the  cardinal 
who,  conjointly  with  Cardinal  Caraffa,  afterwards  Pope 
Paul  IV.,  had  been  directed  to  draw  up  suggestions  for 
improvement  of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  The  document 
drawn  up  by  Caraffa  himself  was  submitted  to  the 
Pope  by  his  command,  and  amongst  the  points  which 
were  declared  to  need  correction  were  the  granting  of 
indulgences  for  money  payments  and  permission  given 
to  travelling  collectors,  such  as  the  Questors  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  &c.,  to  bestow  "  pardons "  in  return  for 
subscriptions.  This,  in  the  judgment  of  the  four 
cardinals,    is    likely    to    lead    to    misunderstandings    as 


^  English  Works,  p.  476. 

"  Stephen  Gardiner.      A  declaration  of  such  true  articles  as  George  Joye 
hath  gone  about  to  confute  as  false.      1546,  f-  2. 


PILGRIMAGES  AND   RELICS  439 

to  the  real  nature  of  the  indulgences  granted,  to  de- 
ceive rustic  minds,  and  to  give  rise  to  all  manner  of 
superstitions.  ^ 

Cardinal  Sadolet,  one  of  the  four  cardinals  who 
formed  the  Papal  Commission  just  referred  to,  in  an 
appeal  to  the  German  princes  makes  the  same  adverse 
criticism  about  the  money  payments  received  for  the 
granting  of  indulgences.  "  The  whole  of  Germany,"  he 
says,  '<  has  been  convulsed  by  the  indulgences  granted 
by  Pope  Leo.  X.  to  those  who  would  contribute  to  the 
building  of  St.  Peter's.  These  indulgences,"  he  says, 
"  and  consequently  the  agents  in  distributing  them,  I 
do  not  now  defend.  And  I  remember  that,  as  far  as 
my  position  and  honour  would  then  allow,  I  spoke 
against  them  when  those  decrees  were  published,  and 
when  my  opinion  had  no  effect  I  was  greatly  grieved." 
He  did  not,  he  continued,  doubt  the  power  of  the  Pope 
in  granting  the  indulgences,  but  held  that  "  in  giving 
them,  the  manner  now  insisted  on  with  every  care  by 
the  supreme  Pontiff,  Paul  III.,  ought  to  be  maintained, 
namely,  that  they  should  be  granted  freely,  and  that 
there  should  be  no  mention  of  money  in  regard  to 
them.  The  loving-kindness  and  mercy  of  God  should 
not  be  sold  for  money,  and  if  anything  be  asked  for 
at  the  time,  it  should  be  requested  as  a  work  of 
piety."  '^ 

The  above  will  show  that  earnest-minded  men  were 
fully  alive  to  the  abuses  which  might  be  connected  with 
the  granting  of  indulgences,  and  no  condemnation  could 
have  been  stronger  than  that  formulated  by  the  Council 
of  Trent.     At  the  same  time,  it  is  clear  that  the  abuses 

^  Consi/iicm  de  evicndanda  ccclcsia  (Ed.  1538))  sig.  B.  4. 

-  Jacobi  Sadoletti,  Opera  Omnia,  Verona  (1737).     Tom  ii. ,  p.  437. 


440      THE  EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

of  the  system  were,  so  far  as  England  at  least  is  con- 
cerned, neither  widespread  nor  obvious.  The  silence 
of  Sir  Thomas  More  on  the  matter,  and  the  very 
mild  representations  of  his  adversary,  Christopher  Saint- 
German,  show  that  this  is  the  case.  Saint-German's  ob- 
jection was  not  against  the  system,  but  against  the  same 
kind  of  abuses  against  which  subsequently  the  Fathers 
of  Trent  legislated.  The  reformers  attacked  not  the 
abuses  only  but  the  whole  system,  and  their  language 
has  quite  unjustly  been  frequently  interpreted  by  sub- 
sequent writers  as  evidence  of  the  existence  everywhere 
of  widespread  abuses.  In  this  regard  it  is  well  to  bear 
in  mind  that  the  translation  of  the  works  of  the  German 
reformers  into  English  cannot  be  taken  as  contemporary 
evidence  for  England  itself. 

The  cry  of  the  advanced  party  which  would  sweep 
away  every  vestige  of  the  old  religious  observances  was 
certainly  not  popular.  One  example  of  a  testimony  to 
the  general  feeling  in  London  is  given  in  a  little  work 
printed  by  one  of  the  reforming  party  in  1542,  when  it 
was  found  that  Henry  VIII.  did  not  advance  along  the 
path  of  reformation  marked  out  by  the  foreign  fol- 
lowers of  Luther  as  quickly  as  his  rejection  of  papal 
supremacy  and  the  overthrow  of  the  religious  houses 
had  caused  some  people  to  hope.  The  tract  in  question 
is  called  The  lamentation  of  a  Christian  against  the  Citie  of 
London,  made  by  Roderigo  Mors^  and  some  quotations 
from  it  will  show  what  view  an  ardent  reformer  took  of 
the  spirit  of  Londoners  towards  the  new  doctrines. 
"The  greater  part  of  these  inordinate  rich,  stiff-necked 
citizens,"  he  writes,  "  will  not  have  in  their  houses  that 

^  It  is  said  to  be  "  printed  at  Jericho  in  the  land  of  Promes,  by  Thomas 
Treuth." 


PILGRIMAGES  AND   RELICS  441 

lively  word  of  our  souls  ^  nor  suffer  their  servants  to 
have  it,  neither  yet  (will  they)  gladly  read  it  or  hear  it 
read,  but  abhors  and  disdains  all  those  who  would 
live  according  to  the  Gospel,  and  instead  thereof  they 
set  up  and  maintain  idolatry  and  other  innumerable 
wickedness  of  man's  invention  daily  committed  in  the 
city  of  London." 

"  The  greatest  part  of  the  seniors  and  aldermen,  with 
the  multitude  of  the  inordinate  rich  .  .  .  with  the 
greatest  multitude  of  thee,  O  city  of  London,  take  the 
part  and  be  fully  bent  with  the  false  prophets,  the 
bishops  and  other  strong,  stout,  and  sturdy  priests  of 
Baal,  to  persecute  unto  death  all  and  every  godly  person 
who  either  preaches  the  word  or  setteth  it  forth  in  writ- 
ing .  .  .  O  Lord  !  how  blind  are  these  citizens  who 
take  so  good  care  to  provide  for  the  dead  which  is  not 
commanded  of  them  nor  availeth  the  dead."  .  .  .  When 
they  feel  themselves  worthily  plagued,  which  comes  of 
Thee  only,  then  they  will  run  a-gadding  after  their  false 
prophets  through  the  streets  once  or  twice  a  week,  cry- 
ing and  calling  to  creatures  of  the  Creator,  or  with  ora 
pro  nobis,  and  that  in  a  tongue  which  the  greatest  part 
of  them  understand  not,  unto  Peter,  Paul,  James  and 
John,  Mary  and  Martha  :  and  I  think  within  a  few  years 
they  will  (without  Thy  great  mercy)  call  upon  Thomas 
Wolsey,  late  Cardinal,  and  upon  the  unholy  (or  as  they 
would  say  holy)  maid  of  Kent.  Why  not,  as  well  as 
upon  Thomas  Becket  ?  What  he  was,  I  need  not  write. 
It  is  well  known.^ 

"  And  think  ye  not  that  if  the  Blessed  Virgin  Mary 
were  now  upon  earth  and  saw  her  Son  and  only  Redeemer 

1  The  English  Testament. 

-  Sig.  A.  3.  ^  Ibid.,  sig.  A.  4. 


442      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

robbed  of  His  glory,  which  glory,  you  blind  citizens  give 
to  her,  would  she  not  rend  her  clothes  like  as  did  the 
Apostles,  for  offering  oblations  with  their  forefathers' 
kings'  heads  unto  the  Queen  of  Heaven  ?  How  many 
queens  of  Heaven  have  ye  in  the  Litany  ?  O  !  dear 
brethren,  be  no  longer  deceived  with  these  false  pro- 
phets your  bishops  and  their  members."  ^ 

"  The  great  substance  which  you  bestow  upon  chan- 
tries, obits,  and  such  like  dregs  of  .  .  .  Rome,  which  most 
commonly  ye  give  for  three  causes,  as  ye  say,  first, 
that  you  will  have  the  service  of  God  maintained  in  the 
church  to  God's  honour,  and  yet  by  the  same  service  is 
God  dishonoured,  for  the  Supper  of  the  Lord  is  per- 
verted and  not  used  after  Christ's  institution  .  .  .  and 
the  holy  memory  turned  into  a  vain  superstitious  cere- 
monial Mass,  as  they  call  it,  which  Mass  is  an  abomin- 
able idol,  and  of  all  idols  the  greatest ;  and  never  shall 
idolatry  be  quenched  where  that  idol  is  used  after  anti- 
christ's institution  .  .  .  which  no  doubt  shall  be  reformed 
when  the  time  is  come  that  God  hath  appointed,  even  as 
it  is  already  in  divers  cities  of  Germany,  as  Zurich,  Basle, 
and  Strasburg  and  such  other." 

"  The  second  cause  is  for  redeeming  your  souls  and 
your  friends,  which  is  also  abominable.  .  .  .  The  idolator 
nowadays,  if  he  set  a  candle  before  an  image  and  idol, 
he  says  he  does  not  worship  the  image,  but  God  it  re- 
presents. For  say  they,  who  is  so  foolish  as  to  worship 
an  image  ?  The  third  cause  of  your  good  intent  is  that 
the  profit  of  your  goods  may  come  to  the  priests  ;  as 
though  they  were  the  peculiar  people  of  God  and  only 
beloved  ;  as  indeed  to  those  who  preach  the  Gospel  the 
people  are  bound  to  give  sufficient  living   .  .   .  but  not 

1  Ibid.jsigs.  A.  5  d.,  A.  6  d. 


PILGRIMAGES  AND   RELICS  443 

that  their  prayers  can  help  the  dead  no  more  than  a 
man's  breath  blowing  a  sail  can  cause  a  great  ship  to 
sail.  So  is  this  also  become  an  abomination,  for  those 
be  not  Christ's  ministers,  but  the  ministers  of  a  rabble 
of  dirty  traditions  and  popish  ceremonies,  and  you  find 
a  sort  of  lusty  lubbers  who  are  well  able  to  labour  for 
their  living  and  strong  to  get  it  with  the  sweat  of  their 
face."  ^ 

<* .  .  .  O  ye  citizens,  if  ye  would  turn  but  even  the 
profits  of  your  chantries  and  obits  to  the  finding  of  the 
poor,  what  a  politic  and  goodly  provision  !  whereas  now 
London  being  one  of  the  flowers  of  the  world  as  touch- 
ing worldly  riches  hath  so  many,  yea  innumerable  poor 
people,  forced  to  go  from  door  to  door  and  to  sit  openly 
in  the  streets  begging,  and  many  not  able  to  do  other- 
wise but  lie  in  their  houses  in  most  grievous  pains  and 
die  for  lack  of  the  aid  of  the  rich,  to  the  great  shame  of 
thee,  oh  London  !  "  ^ 

After  exclaiming  against  the  amount  of  money  spent 
by  the  authorities  of  the  city  of  London  on  civic  enter- 
tainments, and  railing  against  the  support  given  to  "  the 
Mass  of  Scala  coeli,  of  the  Five  wounds,  and  other  such 
like  trumpery,"  our  author  continues  :  "  Have  you  not 
slain  the  servants  of  the  Lord,  only  for  speaking  against 
the  authority  of  the  false  bishop  of  Rome,  that  monstrous 
beast,  whom  now  you  yourselves  do,  or  should,  abhor  ? 
I  mean  all  his  laws  being  contrary  to  Christ  and  not  His 
body,  and  yet  you  see  that  a  few  years  past  you  burnt 
for  heretics  abominable  those  who  preached  or  wrote 
against  his  usurped  power,  and  now  it  is  treason  to 
uphold   or    maintain    any  part    of    his   usurped    power, 

J  Ibid.,  sig.  B.  i. 
-  Ibid.,  sig.  B.  ii. 


444      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

and  he  shall  die  as  a  traitor  who  does  so,  and  well 
worthy."  ^ 

After  declaiming  against  the  Mass  and  confession, 
and  declaring  that  the  bishops  and  cathedral  churches 
should  be  despoiled  of  their  wealth  as  their  "  com- 
panions and  brethren  in  antichrist,  the  abbots "  had 
been,  the  author  of  the  tract  goes  on  :  "  God  gave  the 
king  a  heart  to  take  the  wicked  mammon  from  you,  as 
he  may  rightfully  do  with  the  consent  of  the  Commons  by 
Act  of  Parliament,  so  that  it  may  be  disposed  of  accord- 
ing to  God's  glory  and  the  commonwealth,  and  to  take 
himself  as  portion,  as  (say)  eight  or  ten  of  every  hundred, 
for  an  acknowledgment  of  obedience  and  for  the  main- 
tenance of  his  estate.  The  rest  politically  to  be  put 
into  a  commonwealth,  first  distributed  among  all  the 
towns  in  England  in  sums  according  to  the  quantity  and 
number  of  the  occupiers  and  where  most  need  is,  and 
all  the  towns  to  be  bound  to  the  king  so  that  he  may 
have  the  money  at  his  extreme  need  to  serve  him,  he 
rendering  it  again.  And  also  a  politic  way  (should 
be)  taken  for  provision  of  the  poor  in  every  town,  with 
some  part  to  the  marriage  of  young  persons  that  lack 
friends."  ^' 

The  bishops  the  writer  considers  to  be  the  greatest 
obstacles  to  the  reformation  of  religion  in  England 
on  the  model  of  what  had  already  taken  place  in 
Germany.  "  You  wicked  mammon,"  he  continues, 
"  your  inordinate  riches  was  not  of  5^our  heavenly 
Father's  planting  ;  therefore  it  must  be  plucked  up 
by  the  roots  with  the  riches  of  your  other  brethren 
of  the  Romish  church  or  church  malignant,  Vv'hich  of 
late  were  rightfully  plucked  up.     I  would  to  God  that 

^  Ibid.,  sig.  B.  viii.  -  Sig.  D.  vii. 


PILGRIMAGES  AND   RELICS  445 

the  distribution  of  the  same  lands  and  goods  had  been 
as  godly  distributed  as  the  act  of  the  rooting  up  was  ; 
which  distribution  of  the  same  I  dare  say  all  Christian 
hearts  lament.  For  the  fat  swine  only  were  greased, 
but  the  poor  sheep  to  whom  that  thing  belonged  had 
least  or  nothing  at  all.  The  fault  will  be  laid  to  those 
of  the  Parliament  House,  especially  to  those  who  bear 
the  greatest  swing.  Well,  I  touch  this  matter  here,  to 
exhort  all  that  love  God's  word  unfeignedly  to  be  dili- 
gent in  prayer  only  to  God  to  endue  the  Lords,  Knights, 
and  Burgesses  of  the  next  Parliament  with  His  spirit, 
that  the  lands  and  goods  of  these  bishops  may  be  put 
to  a  better  use,  as  to  God's  glory,  the  wealth  of  the 
commonalty  and  provision  for  the  poor."  ^ 

The  above  lengthy  extracts  will  show  what  the  ad- 
vanced spirits  among  the  English  followers  of  Luther 
hoped  for  from  the  religious  revolution  which  had 
already,  when  the  tract  was  written,  been  begun.  It 
will  also  serve  to  show  that  even  in  London,  which 
may  be  supposed  to  have  been  in  the  forefront  of  the 
movement,  the  religious  changes  were  by  no  means 
popular  ;  but  the  civic  authorities  and  people  clung  to 
the  old  faith  and  traditions,  which  the  author  well  and 
tersely  describes  as  "  the  Romish  religion." 


The  readers  of  the  foregoing  pages  will  see  that  no 
attempt  has  been  made  to  draw  a  definite  conclusion 
from  the  facts  set  down,  or  expound  the  causes  of  the 
ultimate  triumph  of  the  Reformation  principles  in  Eng- 
land.    It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  the  time  for 

^  Ibid.,  sig.  D.  viii. 


446      THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

a  satisfactory  synthesis  is  not  yet  come  ;  but  it  may  not 
be  unnecessary  to  deprecate  impatience  to  reach  an 
ultimate  judgment. 

The  necessary  assumption  which  underhes  the  in- 
herited Protestant  history  of  the  Reformation  in  the 
sixteenth  century  is  the  general  corruption  of  manners 
and  morals  no  less  than  of  doctrine,  and  the  ignorance 
of  religious  truths  no  less  than  the  neglect  of  religious 
precepts  on  the  part  of  both  clergy  and  people.  On 
such  a  basis  nothing  can  be  easier  and  simpler  than 
to  account  for  the  issue  of  the  English  religious  changes. 
The  revival  of  historical  studies  and  the  alienation  of 
the  minds  of  many  historians  from  traditional  Chris- 
tianity, whether  in  its  Catholic  or  Protestant  form,  has, 
however,  thrown  doubt  on  this  great  fundamental  as- 
sumption— a  doubt  that  will  be  strengthened  the  more 
the  actual  conditions  of  the  case  are  impartially  and 
thoroughly  investigated.  Many  of  the  genuine  sources 
of  history  have  only  within  this  generation  become 
really  accessible  ;  what  was  previously  known  has  been 
more  carefully  examined  and  sifted,  whilst  men  have 
begun  to  see  that  if  the  truth  is  to  be  ascertained 
inquiries  must  be  pursued  in  detail  within  local  limits, 
and  that  it  does  not  suffice  to  speak  in  general  terms 
of  "  the  corrupt  state  of  the  Church." 

If  we  are  to  know  the  real  factors  of  the  problem 
to  be  solved,  separate  investigations  have  to  be  pursued 
which  lead  to  very  varying  conclusions  as  to  the  state 
of  the  Church,  the  ecclesiastical  life  and  the  religious 
practices  of  the  people  in  different  countries.  It  is 
already  evident  that  the  corruptions  or  the  virtues 
prevailing  in  one  quarter  must  not  straightway  be 
credited  to  the   account  of   another ;  that    the    reason 


PILGRIMAGES  AND   RELICS  447 

why  one  country  has  become  Protestant,  or  another 
remained  CathoUc,  has  to  be  sought  for  in  each  case, 
and  that  it  may  be  safely  asserted  that  the  maintenance 
of  CathoHcity  or  the  adoption  of  Protestantism  in 
different  regions,  had  comparatively  little  to  do  with 
prevalence  or  absence  of  abuses,  or  as  little  depended  on 
the  question  whether  these  were  more  or  less  grievous. 

Unquestionably  those  who  desire  to  have  a  ready 
explanation  of  great  historical  movements  or  revolu- 
tions, find  themselves  increasingly  baulked  in  the 
particular  case  of  the  Reformation  by  the  new  turn 
which  modern  historical  research  has  given  to  the 
consideration  of  the  question.  Recent  attempts  to 
piece  up  the  new  results  with  the  old  views  afford 
a  warning  against  precipitation,  and  have  but  shown 
that  the  explanation  of  the  successful  issue  of  the  Refor- 
mation in  England  is  a  problem  less  simple  or  obvious 
than  many  popular  writers  have  hitherto  assumed.  The 
factors  are  clearly  seen  now  to  be  many — sometimes 
accidental,  sometimes  strongly  personal — whilst  aspir- 
ations after  worldly  commodities,  though  destined  not  to 
be  realised  for  the  many,  were  often  and  in  the  most 
influential  quarters  a  stronger  determinant  to  acquies- 
cence or  active  co-operation  in  the  movement  than  thirst 
after  pure  doctrine,  love  of  the  open  Bible,  or  desire  for 
a  vernacular  liturgy.  The  first  condition  for  the  under- 
standing of  the  problem  at  all  is  the  most  careful 
and  detailed  examination  possible  of  the  state  of 
popular  religion  during  the  whole  of  the  century 
which  witnessed  the  change,  quite  apart  from  the 
particular  political  methods  employed  to  effect  the 
transition  from  the  public  teaching  of  the  old  faith, 
as   it  was   professed  in  the   closing  years  of  the  reign 


448       THE   EVE  OF  THE   REFORMATION 

of  Henry  VI 1 1.,  and  the  new  as  it  was  officially  prac- 
tised a  dozen  years  after  Elizabeth  had  held  the  reins 
of  power. 

The  interest  of  the  questions  discussed  in  the 
present  volume  is  by  no  means  exclusively,  perhaps 
to  some  persons  is  even  by  no  means  predominantly, 
a  religious  one.  It  has  been  insisted  upon  in  the 
preceding  pages  that  religion  on  the  eve  of  the  Refor- 
mation was  intimately  bound  up  with  the  whole  social 
life  of  the  people,  animating  it  and  penetrating  it  at 
every  point.  No  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the 
history  of  later  centuries  in  England  can  doubt  for  a 
moment  that  the  religion  then  professed  presented  in 
this  respect  a  contrast  to  the  older  faith  ;  or  as  some 
writers  may  put  it,  religion  became  restricted  to  what 
belongs  to  the  technically  "  religious  "  sphere.  But  this 
was  not  confined  to  England,  or  even  to  Protestant 
countries.  Everywhere,  it  may  be  said,  in  the  centuries 
subsequent  to  the  religious  revolution  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  religion  became  less  directly  social  in  its 
action  ;  and  if  the  action  and  interference  of  what  is 
now  called  the  State  in  every  department  of  social 
life  is  continually  extending,  this  may  not  inaptly  be 
said  to  be  due  to  the  fact  that  it  has  largely  taken  up 
the  direct  social  work  and  direction  from  which  the 
Church  found  herself  perhaps  compelled  to  recede,  in 
order  to  concentrate  her  efforts  more  intensely  on 
the  promotion  of  more  purely  and  strictly  religious 
influences.  It  is  impossible  to  study  the  available 
sources  of  information  about  the  period  immediately 
preceding  the  change  without  recognising  that,  so  far 
from  the  Church  being  a  merely  effete  or  corrupt  agency 
in  the  commonwealth,  it  was  an  active  power  for  popular 


PILGRIMAGES  AND  RELICS  449 

good  in  a  very  wide  sense.  At  any  rate,  whatever  view 
we  may  take  of  the  results  of  the  Reformation,  to 
understand  rightly  the  conditions  of  religious  thought 
and  life  on  the  eve  of  the  religious  revolution,  is  a 
condition  of  being  able  really  to  read  aright  our  own 
time  and  to  gauge  the  extent  to  which  present  tendencies 
find  their  root  or  their  justification  in  the  past. 


2  F 


INDEX 


Abbots,  display  in  elections  of,  129 

Abraham,  religious  play,  320 

Adrian  VI.,  Pope,  157 

Aggeus,  Augustine,  310 

Aldine  press,  at  Venice,  160 

Aldus,  printer,  160,  166 

Alexander  VI.,  Pope,  102 

Alms,  132 

Alton,  foundation  for  obits  at,  403- 
404 

Amberbach,  printer,  166 

Amyas  Chantry,  401-402 

Angels,  devotion  to,  308 

Anti-clerical  spirit,  114,  119 

Antoninus,  St.,  Archbishop  of  Flor- 
ence, 96 

"Apology"  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  71, 
73,  IIS,  122,  144 

Archreology,  pagan  and  Christian, 
206 

Architecture,  pre-Reformation  activity 
in,  9-10,  328  et  seq.;  decline  of 
the  art,  329 

Aretino,  23 

Art,  great  activity  of,  prior  to  Re- 
formation, 10-12 

Arundel,  Archbishop,  236 

Ashley,  Mr.  W.  J.,  cited,  379 

Augmentation,  Court  of,  384 

Badsworth,  chantry  foundation  at, 
401 

Baigent,  Mr.  F.  T.,  372,  note 

Baker,  medieval  fresco  painter,  1 1 

Baptism,  225 

Barbarus.  Hermolaus,  29 

Barnes,  Friar,  88,  118,  119,  136,  223 

Basle,  printing-press  at,  165 

Baynard's  Castle,  meeting  at,  68 

Beccles,  foundation  at,  408 

Becket,  Thomas,  441 

Bede-roll,  335,  341 

Benedict  XIL,  103 

Benedictine  Order,  average  of  gradu- 
ates at  Oxford,  42 


Benefices,  55,  106,  108,  note,  353 

Benefit  of  clergy,  55 

Bequests,  mediceval,  389  et  seq. 

Bere,  Abbot,  of  Glastonbury,  39,  40, 
note 

Berthelet,  publisher,  72,  note,  73,  98, 
note,  102,  note,  107,  note,  no,  137, 
note,  298 

Bible,  the  Bishops',  247 

Bible,  Erasmus's  translation,  16S  et 
seq. 

Bible,  English,  hostility  to,  236  ;  evi- 
dence of  Catholic  acceptance,  237, 
242,  247  ;  supposed  early  Catholic 
version,  237,  242,  247  ;  persecu- 
tions for  possession  examined,  240, 
and  note,  241  ;  translations  autho- 
rised, 242-243,  247-249  ;  not  pro- 
hibited, 247,  275-276  ;  absence  of 
popular  demand  for,  250-251  ; 
Tyndale's  version  and  Luther's 
share  in  it,  252  et  seq.;  useless 
vi'ithout  interpretation,  275 

Bishops,  and  ordination,  148 ;  and 
spiritual  jurisdiction,  154;  obstacles 
to  Reformation,  444 

Blackfriars,  meetings  at,  67,  68 

Bombasius,  Paul,  33,  note,  34 

Bond,  William,  83,  305 

Boniface  VIII.,  Pope,  99 

Books,  heretical,  prohibited,  213- 
2i6;  More  on  heretical,  218  et 
seq.;  earliest  printed  largely  re- 
ligious, 315 

Bourbon,  Duke  of,  230 

Boyer,  Sebastian,  Court  physician, 
160 

Brentano,  Mr.,  cited,  362-363 

Brethren  of  St.  John's,  374 ;  and 
Hospital,  375 

Bretton,  William,  310,  and  note 

Brewer,  Mr.,  cited,  147,  21 1-212,  250, 
279 

Brotherhoods,  Parish,  347 

Brunfels,  Otto,  194 


INDEX 


451 


Brygott,  Richard,  prior  of  Westacre, 

44 
Bucer,  214 
Burials,  54 

Burnet,  historian,  cited,  4 
Bury  St.  Edmunds,  chantries  at,  409 
Butley,  Priory  of,  43 

Calendar  of  papers,  domestic  and 
foreign,  of  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  4 

Cambray,  Bishop  of,  159 

Cambridge,  portions  of  Prior  Selling's 
library  at,  32  ;  monastic  students 
at,  43  ;  petition  of  scholars  to  the 
king,  47 

Campeggio,  Cardinal,  179,  iSo,  181 

Canterbury,  Archbishop  of,  on  clerical 
immunity,  69 

Canterbury,  entertainment  of  Em- 
peror Manuel  at  Christchurch, 
22  ;  Selling  and  Hadley,  monks  of 
Christchurch,  24  et  seq. ;  Canter- 
bury College  at  Oxford,  27,  28, 
note;  St.  Augustine's  and  the  lit- 
erary movement,  40 

Caraffa,  Cardinal,  afterwards  Paul 
IV.,  105,  107,  438 

Carmelites,  origin,  117;  responsibility 
for  Lutheranism,  197 

Caxton,  275,  note 

Chalcocondylas,  Demetrius,  29 

Chantries,  123,  124,  399,  401 

Chapels  of  ease,  413 

Chaplains,  evil  effects  of  their  posi- 
tion, 138-139 

Charnock,  Prior,  39 

Chaucer,  cited,  415 

Children,  and  idols,  292  ;  religious 
instruction  of,  312,  313-314 

Christchurch,  see  Canterbury 

Christianity  and  the  classical  revival, 
203-206 

Chrysoloras,  Manuel,  Greek  scholar, 
23,  and  note 

Chrysostom,  St.,  cited,  122 

Church,  position  of,  prior  to  Reforma- 
tion, I,  147,  211  ;  need  of  reform 
in,  5  et  seq. ;  attitude  to  learning, 
15,  21,  35-38,  41  ;  hostility  to 
"New  Learning"  explained,  15  et 
seq.,  19  ;  limits  of  jurisdiction,  51  ; 
and  disputations  entailed,  ibid.  ; 
State  right  to  regulate  temporalities 
of,    53    et  seq. ;    king   as   supreme 

)  head,  65,  iii  ;  rights,  65;  what 
constitutes,  70  ;  riches  coveted,  75 ; 
Pope  as  head,  83   et  seq. ;    Papal 


Commission  appointed  to  save, 
105  ;  evils  in,  and  how  caused, 
105-106 ;  abuses  pointed  out  by 
Commission,  107,  note,  108,  note; 
limitations  of  king's  Headship, 
1 1  l-l  12  ;  controversy  on  riches  of, 
123;  Erasmus's  attitude  to,  167  et 
seq.,  199-200;  Erasmus  regarded 
as  an  enemy  to,  175-176;  Lutheran 
tenets  concerning,  194 ;  need  of 
reform  obscured  by  Reformation, 
198 ;  attack  on,  216 ;  attitude  to 
vernacular  Bibles,  236  et  seq.,  245- 
248  ;  but  hostility  to  denied,  242- 
243,  246-247,  25 1  ;  religious  teach- 
ing prior  to  Reformation,  278  et 
seq. ;  charges  against  on  points  of 
worship,  293,  302-305  ;  bequests 
to,  390  et  seq. ;  suggested  disposal 
of  wealth  of,  444  ;  abuses  in,  415 
Church  of  Christ,  sermon  on,  91 
Church-building,  activity  of,  326 ; 
contributions  of  people  towards 
bequests  for,  327,  and  note,  390 ; 
decoration,  328,  332 
Church  House,  341 
Churchyards,  trees  and  grass  in,  60 
Cicero,  and  the  classical  revival,  203- 

206 
Ciceroniana  of  Erasmus,  203 
Clark,  Dr.  John,  English  ambassador, 

94 

Classical  revival,  Erasmus  on,  203  ; 
absurdities  of,  203-204 

Claymond,  John,  Greek  scholar,  40, 
note,  41,  note 

Clement,  John,  37,  note 

Clement,  Pope,  109,  note 

Clergy,  alleged  encouragement  of 
ignorance,  2,  27S  ;  mortuary  dues, 
53,  140-144  ;  "benefit,"  55  ;  rights 
and  duties,  61,  65-70  ;  ordinations, 
63,  148-153;  exemptions,  63  ;  im- 
munity, 66  et  seq. ;  not  the  Church, 
70 ;  position  as  individuals,  72 ; 
attack  on  their  temporalities,  103  ; 
laity's  grievance  against,  1 14  et 
seq.;  and  its  causes,  1 19,  138; 
defended  by  More,  1 20-1 21 ;  alleged 
mercenary  spirit,  123 ;  and  idle 
laxity  of  living,  127;  prayers,  131 ; 
alms,  132-133  ;  fasting  and  morti- 
fication, 134  ;  charges  of  corrup- 
tion, 136  ;  lack  of  definite  work, 
137,  7iote ;  in  households  of  laity, 
138;  tithe  exactions,  142;  faults, 
143-145  ;  alleged  immorality,  145- 


452 


INDEX 


146;  charge  of  simony,  146;  Mr. 
Brewer  cited  on,  147 ;  ignorance 
of,  151  ;  hostility  to  vernacular 
scriptures  examined,  236  et  seq., 
243,  246  ;  and  reasons  for  not  en- 
couraging, 242,  244 ;  extent  and 
character  of  their  religious  teach- 
ing, 280  et  st'ij. ;  books  used  by  for 
teaching,  309  et  seq.  ;  chantry 
clergy,  400,  405-409,  413  ;  pil- 
grimages and  relics  maintained  by, 
415  ;  and  motives  for,  422,  425 
"  Clericus,"  74 

Cloth,  clerical.  State's  right  to  legis- 
late on,  60 
Cochlaeus,  John,  253,  254,  note 
Colet,  Dean,  7,  19,  29,  and  Jiote,  33, 

itote,  149,  160,  164,  168 
Commerce,  progress  not  due  to  Re- 
formation, 8 
Commissioners,  royal,  380,  384 
Compostella,  pilgrimages  to,  416,417 
Concordat,    between     Leo    X.    and 

Francis  I.,  76 
Concubines,  alleged  licences  for,  145 
Confession,  225,  282,  287 
Congregation,  denoting  church,   173, 

note,  262-266 
Conscience,  examinations  of,  286 
Constantine,  donation  to  Pope,  95 
Constantine,  George,  222 
Constantinople,  effect  of  fall  of,  23 
Constitution,      Provincial,     237-239, 

242,  280 
Contarini,  Cardinal,  107,  109,  7iote 
Convocation,   grant    of    headship  of 
Church  to   the  king,    ill;    enact- 
ment   regarding   ordination,    148- 
149 ;    powers  of  legislation  trans- 
ferred to  Crown,    153;   draws  up 
list  of  heretical  books,  215 
Corpus  Christi,  feast  of,  373  ;  proces- 
sion of  guilds,  374  ;   at  Corunna, 
217 
Council  of  Trent,  5,  109,  fwte,  440 
Courts,  ecclesiastical,  subject  to  Pope, 

80-81 
Coverdale,  Myles,  102,  258 
Cranmerand  English  Bible,  236,  247  ; 

on  hearing  mass,  326 
Creeping  to  the  Cross,  302 
Criticism  in  the  Church,  155,  171 
Croke,  Richard,  36,  note,  102,  note 
Cromwell,  Thomas,  112,  153 
Cross,  honour  to    on    Good   Friday, 

302 
Crowley,  quoted,  382 


Crucifix,  reverence  of  image  of,  126, 
289-290,  300,   307  ;    not  an  idol, 

293 
Curates  and  mortuaries,  140-141;  and 

tithes,  142 
Cuthbert,  Bishop,  219 

Dalton,  John,  of  Hull,  will  of,  391 

Dead,  prayers  for,  387,  399 

De  Athegua,   George,    Bishop,    178, 

and  7tote 
De  Burgo,  John,  309 
Dee,    Dr.,    supplication    to     Queen 

Mary,  48 
Defence  of  Peace,  103,  and  note,  104, 

note 
Degree,    advantage    of  to  religious, 

44 

De  Melton,  William,  Chancellor  of 
York,  149 

De  Ribbe,  M.  Charles,  on  wills,  3S9, 
note 

Determinations  of  the  Universities, 
102,  note 

Deventer,  school,  157 

De  Worde,  Wynkyn,  83,  149,  275, 
note,  280,  and  note,  298,  312 

Digon,  John,  Canterbury  monk,  41, 
and  note 

Dislike  of  clergy,  alleged,  114;  rea- 
sons for,  127,  138 

Dispensations,  106 

Dives  et  Pauper,  284,  298,  353,  354 

Division  between  spirituality  and 
temporality,  Saint-German's  work 
on,  115  ct  seq.,  122,  127,  140 

Divorce  question,  the,  and  its  share 
in  Reformation,  208,  and  note 

Doctors  of  divinity,  Erasmus's  satire 
on,  201 

Dollinger,  Dr.,  cited,  21 

Dominicans,  the,  and  Erasmus,  187  ; 
responsibility  for  Lutheranism,  197 

Dorpius,  Marten,  169-170 

Dues  of  clergy,  53 

Dunstan's,  St.,  Canterbury,  346  ;  par- 
ish accounts,  347 

Dyalogue  of  Saint-German,  53  et  seq., 
115,  140;  of  More,  262,  269,289 

Ecclesiastical  authority,  alleged 
discontent  of  laity  under,  i,  114, 
208  et  seq.,  416  ;  limits  of,  51 

Ecclesiastical  discipline,  inquiry  into. 

Ecclesiastics,  attitude  to  revival  of 
learning,  36-38,  41  ;  resistance  to 


INDEX 


453 


encroachment,  51,  53;  Erasmus's 
satire  on,  201  et  seq.;  attitude  to 
English  Bible,  236  et  seq.;  alleged 
encouragement  of  ignorance,  2,  278 

Edgworth,  Roger,  preacher,  16,  46, 
212,  244,  272,  273,  note,  292,  359 

Education,  fostered  by  monasteries, 

45 

Enconmi?i  Monce,  of  Erasmus,  161- 
162,  201  et  seq. 

Erasmus,  attitude  to  Reformation,  7, 
20  ;  made  responsible  for  "  New 
Learning,"  16,  note;  but  attitude  to 
defined,  19,  20;  his  chief  support 
in  England,  38  ;  position  and  views, 
155  ;  considered  a  Reformer,  156, 
178,  1S0-181  ;  birth  and  education, 
156-157  ;  joins  order  of  St.  Augus- 
tine, 157;  ordained,  z7'?'(/.;  unfitness 
for  religious  life,  157;  hostility  to 
religious  orders,  158,  180,  187,  200; 
denounces  enticing  of  youths  into 
cloister,  ibid. ;  leaves  the  religious 
life,  159;  takes  pupils,  ibid.;  at 
Oxford,  159-160  ;  in  London,  160  ; 
visits  Italy,  ibid. ;  his  Adagia, 
ibid. ;  visits  Venice,  ibid. ;  returns 
to  London,  161  ;  his  Enconiuni 
MoricE,  161- 1 62,  201  et  seq.,  43 1  ; 
at  Cambridge,  161-162  ;  testimony 
to  Archbishop  Warham's  kind- 
ness, 162-163  ;  praise  of  English 
ecclesiastics,  163,  note  ;  amounts  re- 
ceived from  English  friends,  164  ; 
again  leaves  England,  165  ;  settles 
at  Basle,  ibid. ;  superintends  Fro- 
ben's  press,  166  ;  death,  167  ;  atti- 
tude to  Church,  167  et  seq.,  199- 
200 ;  translation  of  New  Testa- 
ment, 168  et  seq.;  attacks  on,  173 
et  seq. ;  regarded  as  an  enemy  to 
the  Church,  175-176  ;  opposition 
to  his  revival  of  Greek,  1 77-178  ; 
defends  himself  to  the  Pope,  179, 
181-182  ;  disclaims  connection  with 
Luther,  180-182,  185,  195-198; 
opposition  to  national  churches, 
182,  note  ;  attitude  to  Luther,  185, 
I95>  196-198  ;  attacks  Luther, 
186  ;  replies  to  von  Hutten's  at- 
tacks, 187  et  seq.  ;  attitude  to  the 
Pope,  189-190,  and  7tote,  193,  194- 
I95j  197  ;  attacks  Lutheran  mo- 
tives, 191-192 ;  letter  to  Bishop 
Marlianus  on  attitude  to  Luther, 
197  ;  general  attitude  to  religious 
movement  of  his  age,  200  et  seq.  ; 


and  to  the  classical  revival,   203  ; 

on  pilgrimages  and  relics,  415,  418, 

431  ;  on  devotion  to  saints,  431  et 

seq. 
Eton  College  Chapel,  wall  paintings 

of,  II 
Evensong,  said  before  noon,  134 
Exemptions  of  clergy,  63,  76 

Fairs,   378  et  seq. ;  at  Winchester, 

379 

Faith,  The  Olde,  of  Great  Britlayne 
and  the  New  Learning  of  England, 
17,  and  note 

Fasting,  134 

Ferguson,  Mr.,  quoted  on  architec- 
tural art,  329 

Fineux,  Chief-Justice,  tries  John 
Savage,  57  et  seq. ;  opinion  on 
spiritual  courts,  69 

Fisher,  Bishop,  love  of  learning,  36, 
note ;  object  in  studying  Greek,  38  ; 
views  on  Papal  supremacy,  90,  and 
/tote ;  books  against  Luther,  90, 
note,  192  ;  execution,  91  ;  sermon 
on,  92  ;  on  moral  character  of  re- 
ligious, 137,  note;  invitation  to 
Erasmus,  x6i  ;  on  Erasmus's  New 
Testament,  169,  175,  note;  sup- 
ports study  of  Greek,  177 

Fisher,  Rev.  J.,  311,  note 

Fleming,  Robert,  23 

Foxe,  cited,  240,  note,  251 

Francis  L,  76 

Francis,  Order  of  St.,  117 

Free,  John,  40,  and  jiote 

Frith,  215,  222,  223,  227 

Froben,  printer,  165,  182 

Froude,  on  Erasmus's  New  Testa- 
ment, 172 

Funerals,  54 

Gairdner,  James,  cited  on  jurisdic- 
tion of  Pope,  81,  note;  on  the 
divorce  question,  208,  note ;  on 
Reformation  influences,  210,  211, 
7tote 

Gardiner,  Bishop,  438 

Gardynare,  Germen,  227 

Garlekhithe,  St.  James,  366 

German  reformers,  books  prohibited, 
214-215 

Gibbon,  cited,  22 

Glasse  of  Truth,  IOI-I02,  note 

Glastonbury  monastery,  39 

Gloucester,  Humphrey,  Duke  of,  23 

God,  love  of,  299  ;  worship  of,  304 


454 


INDEX 


Goldstone,  Reginald,  monk,  com- 
panion of  Selling,  26 

Goldstone,  Thomas,  Prior  of  Christ- 
church,  24 

Gonville  Hall,  Cambridge,  43,  44 

Good  Friday  observances,  302-303 

Government,  true  principle  of,  106 

Grace  at  meals,  314 

Graduates  at  Oxford,  register  of, 
41-42 

Greek  emperors,  journeys  to  courts  of 
Western  Europe,  22 

Greek,  influence  in  revival  of  learn- 
ing, 14,  21  et  seq. ;  first  schools  of 
the  revival,  23  ;  effect  of  fall  of 
Constantinople,  23-24  ;  decline  in 
study  of  after  Reformation,  47  ; 
Erasmus  and  the  Greek  Testament, 
168  et  seq. ;  outcry  against  studies 
in,  177 

Green,  historian,  cited,  16,  note 

Gregory  VII.,  Pope,  loi 

Grocyn,  William,  29,  and  note,  160 

Grudge  of  laity  against  ecclesiastics, 
114 

Guardian  angel,  prayer  to,  309 

Guarini,  pupil  of  Chrysoloras,  23 

Guilds,  351  ;  founded  upon  principle 
of  Christian  brothernood,  352  et 
seq.;  trade,  and  religious,  361  ; 
benefit  societies,  363  ;  their  work, 
365,  385  ;  constitution,  ■^66etseq.; 
"Pinners'"  Guild,  368  ;  accounts, 
369-370;  fees,  371;  Guild  of 
Tailors,  371  ;  members,  371  ;  ex- 
penditure, 372,  and  tiote  ;  their  part 
in  Corpus  Christi  processions,  373- 
374 ;  brethren  of  St.  John's,  374 ; 
feasts,  376,  and  note;  Candlemas 
Guild  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  377  ; 
bequests,  377-378;  connection 
with  fairs,  378  ;  final  destruction, 
380 

Hadley,  William,  companion  of 
Prior  Selling,  24 ;  studies  at 
foreign  universities,  25  ;  returns  to 
Christchurch,  26 

Hair  shirts,  131,  134 

Headship  of  the  Church,  the  king's,  56 

Hegius,  Alexander,  157 

Henley  on  Thames,  chantries  at,  405 

Henry  IV.,  136 

Henry  VII.  obtains  Bull  from  Inno- 
cent VIII.,  56 ;  purchases  pardon 
for  Westminster  and  Savoy,  124 

Henry  VIII.,  calendar  of  papers  of 


reign,  4  ;  exerts  his  influence  on 
behalf  of  learning,  36,  177  ;  deter- 
mined to  maintain  rights  of  Crown, 
69  ;  book  against  Luther,  90,  94  ; 
defends  Church,  94,  226 ;  reputed 
book,  102,  ?iote ;  petition  of  Com- 
mons, &c.,  against  spirituality,  153 ; 
quarrel  with  Rome  on  divorce 
question,  208,  and  note;  forbids 
Lutheran  books,  214,  259;  autho- 
rises English  Bibles,  273  ;  destroys 
the  guilds,  380  ;  the  reformers  and, 
440 
Heresy,  spread  by  books,  213,  218 
Hobhouse,  Bishop,  cited,  346,  357 
Holidays,  determined  by  ecclesiastical 

law,  71 
Holy  Land,  pilgrimages  to,  416 
Ho7-tuhis  Animie,  the,  214,  and  note 
Huchin,  William,  see  Tyndale 
Hunn,  Richard,  240 
Hunting,  by  priests,  138,  139,  151 
Hutton,  Rev.  W.  H.,  cited,  208,  note 
Hytton,  Sir  Thomas,  224,  225 

Idolatry,  charges  of,  293,  303,  305 
Idols,  distinguished  from  images,  265, 

289  et  seq. ,  305-306 
Ignorance,  alleged  prevalence  of,  2, 

278 
Images,  confused  with  idols,  265,292  ; 

veneration  of,  289  et  seq.,  423  et  seq. 
Immunity  of  clergy,  63,  66  et  seq. 
Indulgences,  108,  note,  435  et  seq. 
Innocent  VIII.  grants  Bull  to  Henry 

VII.,  56,  note 

Janssen,  historian,  cited,  6,  7,  279, 

354 
Jerome,  St.,  corrections  in  Testament, 

170;    cited  on    Papal   supremacy, 

197 
Jessop,  Dr.,  cited,  43 ;  on  popular  gifts 

to  churches,  336  ;  on  poverty,  360 
Jesus,  bowing  at  name  of,  283 
Joye.  George,  or  Clarke,    221,   224, 

253,  257-258,  438 
Judges,  English  prelates  as,  81 
Julius  II.,  Pope,  96,  102,  109,  204 
Jurisdiction,    limits    of    ecclesiastical 

and  lay,  51,  65  et  seq.,  176;  leading 

factor  in  Reformation,  52 ;  Papal, 

78  et  seq.  ;  Roman  curia  as  court 

of  appeal.  So 

Katherine,  Queen,  178 
Kent,  Holy  Maid  of,  441 


INDEX 


455 


King's  power,   75  ;   his  headship   of 

Church,  65,  III 
Knowledge,  result  of  increase  of,  2 

Laity,  Reformation  opposed  to 
convictions  of,  i  ;  alleged  dis- 
affection to  Church,  ibid. ;  and 
reasons  advanced,  idiii.  ;  attitude  to 
Church's  jurisdiction,  51  ;  absence 
of  enthusiasm  among  in  doctrinal 
disputes,  52  ;  grudge  against  eccle- 
siastics, 114  et  set/.;  charge  clergy 
with  mercenary  spirit,  123  ;  dislike 
of  clergy,  and  reasons  for,  127  ; 
"  mortuaries"  a  great  offence  to,  140 

Langton,  Thomas,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester, 33,  and  //oie 

Languages,  battle  of,  176-179 

Laocoon,  the,  statue  of,  206,  ;io^e 

Latimer,  William,  Bishop,  34,  38, 
47  ;  lawsuits,  34S  e/  seq. 

"  Latria,"  294-304,  306-307 

Lawyers,  ecclesiastical,  95 

Learning,  revival  not  due  to  Refor- 
mation, 7-8,  15  ;  adverse  effects  of 
Reformation  on,  9, 198-199  ;  "New 
Learning"  applied  only  to  religious 
teaching,  1 5  f/  seq. ;  Church's  at- 
titude to  learning,  15,  19,  38; 
Erasmus  on  Reformation's  effect 
on,  20 ;  general  aspect  of  revival, 
21  ;  Greek  influence  in,  14,  21  et 
seq. ;  subsequent  progress,  35 ; 
occasional  pulpit  denunciations, 
ibid. ;   slight  nature  of  opposition, 

36  ;  laymen  associated  with  revival, 

37  ;  fostered  by  monasteries,  39  ; 
condition  of  things  at  universities, 
41-44  ;  education  assisted  by  reli- 
gious houses,  45  ;  decay  of  after 
Reformation,  45-48 ;  revival  of, 
associated  with  Lutheranism,  178  ; 
but  without  cause,  180-181  ;  Eras- 
mus's attitude  to  revival  of  letters, 
203-207 

Lee,  Edward,  afterwards  Archbishop 
of  York,  173-174,  and  not(,  252 

Leeds,  chantries  at,  41 1-4 12 

Leland,  cited,  24,  note,  25 

Leo  X.,  Pope,  28,  and  note,  76,  94, 
96,  173,  179,  181,  185,  439. 

Leo  Xin.,  Pope,  cited,  355,  note 

Leonicenus,  34 

Leonicus,  34,  and  note 

Leverton,  parish  of,  339 ;  Church 
accounts,  343  et  seq. 

Lewes,  Cluniac  House  at,  43 


Liberty  advocated  by  Luther,  227 

Libraries,  destruction  of,  48  ;  Dr. 
Dee's  supplication  to  Queen  Mary, 
48  ;  national  library  suggested,  49 

Life,  daily  rules  of,  286-2S7,  313 

Lilly,  George,  29,  note 

Linacre,  pupil  of  Selling,  sketch  of 
early  life,  27  ;  accompanies  Selling 
to  Italy,  28  ;  becomes  pupil  of  Poli- 
tian,  28  ;  at  Rome,  29  ;  returns  to 
Oxford,  30  ;  appointed  Court  physi- 
cian, ibid.  ;  receives  priest's  orders, 
ibid.;  friend  of  Erasmus,  160,  164 

Liveries  for  chaplains,  138 

Lollards,  the,  209  c-t  seq.,  214,  240 

London,  Mors's  Lamentation  against, 
440 

Longland,  Bishop,  93,  146,  147,  ?!ote 

Louvain,  University  of,  160,  174, 
note,  176,  178,  179,  180 

Love  of  God,  299 

Luce,  M.  Simeon,  cited,  351 

Lupset,  Thomas,  sketch  of,  36,  7!ote ; 
on  study  of  Bible,  248 

Luther,  Martin,  aims  of,  7  ;  cited  on 
pre- Reformation  progress,  8;  "New 
Learning"  inculcated  by,  16,  and 
note  ;  books  against,  84-85,  90,  94  ; 
sermon  against,  93  ;  Henry  VHI. 
opposes,  94  ;  method  of,  10S-109, 
7iote ;  More  and  Lutherans,  I30; 
considered  disciple  of  Erasmus, 
156,  178,  180  ;  revival  of  letters  not 
connected  with  his  movement,  180- 
181  ;  Erasmus's  repudiation  of,  iSo- 
182,  195-198  ;  efforts  to  win  over 
Erasmus,  183-184;  attacked  by 
Erasmus,  186,  191-192  ;  supported 
by  von  Hutten,  186  et  seq. ;  tenets 
of  Lutheranism,  194;  methods  of 
attacking  condemned,  196 ;  who 
responsible  for  his  movement,  197  ; 
effects  of  Lutheranism,  198  ;  and 
spread  of,  212-213;  books  pro- 
hibited, 213-215;  disciples,  216; 
his  book,  222;  "New  Learning" 
and,  225  ;  advocacy  of  liberty,  227  ; 
evils  of  Lutheranism,  228-230  ;  and 
of  Lutheran  literature,  244  ;  Tyn- 
dale's  connection  with,  252  ;  share 
in  Tyndale's  Testament,  252-255  ; 
direction  of  his  remonstrances,  279 

Lutheranism,  tenets  of,  194;  re- 
sponsibility for,  197;  effects  of,  19S; 
evils  of,  228-230 ;  expectations  of 
English  Lutherans,  440,  445. 

Lyndwood,  cited,  247,  353. 


456 


INDEX 


Mace,  George,  canon  of  Westacre, 

44 

Maitland,  Professor,  quoted  on  pre- 
Reformation  position  of  the  Pope, 
80 

Manuel,  Greek  Emperor,  arrival  at 
Canterbury,  22  I 

Mary  Magdalene,  religious  play,  320     j 

Marlianus,  Bishop,  197 

Marshall,  William,  103 

Marsilius  of  Padua,  103,  104,  note 

Mary,    Queen,    attempt    to    restore    [ 
learning  under,  48 

Mass,  the,  225,  271,  283,  2S5 

Matrimony,  State  regulation  of,  62  ; 
Hytton's  view  of,  225 

Matthew,  Simon,  preacher,  91 

Medici,  Lorenzo  de,  2S 

Mentz,  Cardinal  Archbishop  of,  181, 
184 

Metal-working,  inventions  in,  42S 

"  Miles,"  mouthpiece  of  Saint-Ger- 
man, 74 

Miracles,  62,  427 

Monasteries,  scholarship  in,  39,  and 
note ;  members  of  at  universities, 
42  «?/  seq. 

Monks,  hostile  to  Erasmus,  176,  180; 
Erasmus  quoted  on,  202  ;  pilgrim- 
ages and  relics  maintained  by,  415 

Morality,  of  clergy,  145-146 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  attitude  to  Re- 
formation, 7  ;  and  to  learning,  19, 
35-37 ;  connection  with  Christ- 
church,  28 ;  at  Oxford,  29,  and  note; 
on  immunity  of  clergy,  70 ;  his 
"Apology,"  71,  73,  115,  122,' 144; 
on  spiritual  authority,  73  ;  on  Papal 
supremacy,  85  d  seq.,  88  ;  on  nature 
of  the  Church,  86  et  seq. ;  against 
Friar  Barnes,  88 ;  book  against 
Luther,  90  ;  death,  91  ;  sermon  on, 
92  ;  controversy  on  clergy  and  laity, 
115  et  seq.  ;  on  quarrels  between 
religious,  1 16-1 17  ;  defends  clergy, 
120;  and  replies  to  allegation  of 
their  mercenary  spirit,  124  ;  and  of 
their  idle  laxity  of  life,  127  ;  on 
abuses  in  religious  life,  130  ;  on 
prayers  and  alms  of  clergy,  131- 
135  ;  defends  clergy  from  charges 
of  corruption,  136;  on  faults  of 
clergy,  143-145 ;  and  on  their 
morality,  145-146  ;  visited  by  Eras- 
mus, 160-161  ;  share  in  Erasmus's 
Enconinm  Moriiv,  16 1- 162,  201  ; 
defends    Erasmus's    translation    of 


New  Testament,  169-170, 173,  wo/^; 
defends  Greek  studies,  177  ;  urges 
Erasmus  against  Luther,  186 ; 
opinion  of  Erasmus's  Enconinm 
Maria:,  202,  7iote ;  on  spread  of 
heresy,  213,  218  ;  on  "  New  Learn- 
ing "  and  Lutheranism,  225  ;  on 
Luther's  advocacy  of  liberty,  227  ; 
on  evils  of  Lutheranism,  228-230  ; 
on  English  Bible,  237  et  seq. ;  on 
case  of  Richard  Hunn,  241  ;  on 
Church's  acceptance  of  vernacular 
Bibles,  242-243,  247-249  ;  and  on 
false  translations,  243  ;  and  reasons 
for  condemnation  of  Tyndale's  ver- 
sion, 243,  260-27C  ;  on  reverence 
of  images,  289-291,  293-298;  on 
prayer,  307  ;  on  pilgrimages,  419 
et  seq.,  425  et  seq. ;  on  relics,  429  ; 
on  indulgences,  437 

Morebath,  village  of,  well-supported 
church,  337 

Mors,  Roderigo,  his  "  Lamentation," 
440 

Mortality  among  pilgrims,  418 

Mortmain,  lands  in,  54 

Mortuaries,  53,  140 

Morysine,  Richard,  105,  107,  note 

Mountjoy,  Lord,  159,  161,  164 

Music,  pre-Reformation  progress  in, 
12-13 ;  Richard  Pace  quoted  on,  35 

Mystery  plays,  2,^6  et  seq. 

National  churches,  opposed  by 
Erasmus,  182,  note 

National  feeling  and  the  Papacy,  82 
et  seq. 

National  library,  suggested,  49 

Nevill,  Archbishop,  281 

"New  Learning"  defined,  15  et  seq.  ; 
its  purely  religious  application,  16 
et  seq. ;  result  of,  50  ;  founded  on 
Luther's  teaching,  225 

New  Testament,  Erasmus's  transla- 
tion, 168  et  seq.;  English  versions 
destroyed,  236 ;  Tyndale  version, 
and  Luther's  share  in  it,  252  et  seq. 

Nicholas  V.,  Pope,  96 

Nicholas  of  Cusa,  reforms  in  Ger- 
many, 6  ;  opinion  on  Constantine's 
gift  to  Pope,  96 

"  Noah  and  his  Sons,"  religious  play, 
320 

Nobility,  attitude  to  clergy,  136 

Norwich,  Visitations  of  Diocese  of, 
43  ;  Benedictine  Cathedral  Priory 
of,  ibid. 


INDEX 


457 


Nottinghamshire,  chantries  in,  401- 
402,  406 

Obits,  399  ct  seq. 

CEcoIampadius,  184,  214 

"  Open  Bible,"  236,  246,  273,  275 

Orders,  religious,  their  graduates  at 
Oxford,  42  ;  suggested  alterations 
in  constitutions,  129;  hostility  of 
Erasmus,  158 

Ordinations,  proposed  prohibition 
regarding,  63  ;  abuses  in,  107,  148  ; 
action  by  Convocation,  148-149 ; 
William  de  Melton  on,  149-153, 
note;  reformers  on,  225,  232 

Oxford,  Register  of  Graduates  at,  41- 
42  ;  refounding  of  Durham  College 
at,  48  ;  heresy  at,  227  ;  Constitu- 
tion or  Synod  of,  238,  247,  280 

Pace,  Richard,  befriended  by  Bishop 
Langton,  33  ;  his  De  Fructii,  33, 
note ;  at  foreign  universities,  34  ; 
the  Pope's  library,  ibid. ;  remarks 
on  music,  35 ;  indebtedness  to 
Abbot  Bere,  40 ;  supports  Greek 
studies,  177 

Pagula,  Walter,  309 

Papal  Commissions,  105,  439 

Papal  jurisdiction,  meaning  of  renun- 
ciation, 78 ;  general  acceptance, 
79  ;  books  against,  loi 

Papal  prerogatives,  in  England,  52, 
107-108  ;  in  France,  77 

Papal  supremacy,  83  et  seq.  ;  rejec- 
tion of,  90;  English  belief  in,  93- 
95  ;  rejection  defended  by  Bishop 
Tunstall,  109 ;  Erasmus  on,  190, 
and  Piote,  194-195 

Pardons,  124,  435  et  seq. 

Parish  churches,  sanctuary  privileges, 
57  ;  religious  teaching  in,  280  et 
seq. 

Parish  life,  323  et  seq.  ;  devotion  of 
people,  325  ;  care  of  the  churches, 
328  ;  raising  of  money,  340 ; 
brotherhoods,  347 

Parliament,  legislation  on  mortuaries, 
53,  141 ;  and  on  immunity  of  clergy, 
66  ;  need  for  settlement  of  religious 
divisions,  60  ;  suggested  legislation, 
55,  62,  71  ;  right  of  legislation, 
141  ;  transfers  powers  of  Convoca- 
tion to  Crown,  153  ;  petition  of 
Commons  against  spirituality,  idid.  ; 
authorises  destruction  of  guilds,  380 

Paul  III.,  Pope,  105,  439 


Paul  IV.,  Pope,  438 

Payment  for  "  Pardons,"  435  et  seq. 

Peckham,  or  Pecham,  Archbishop, 
280,  286 

Penance,  282 

Pensions,  108,  note 

Pensioners,  university,  43 

Pepwell,  publisher,  310,  note 

Petition  of  House  of  Commons 
against  spirituality,  153 

Pili^riviage  of  Perfection,  quoted,  83 

Pilgrimages,  State  supervision  urged, 
62;  objections  to,  184,  293,  415; 
importance,  416  ;  foreign,  416  ;  to 
England,  418 

Pincern,  Bartolomeo,  96 

Pinners,  Guild  of,  368-369 

Plays,  mystery,  316  et  seq.,  342 

Pocket,  the  people's,  a  clue  to  re- 
ligious changes,  52 

Pole,  Cardinal,  48,  107 

Politian,  Angelo,  25,  28 

Pomeranus,  214 

Poor,  right  to  benefices,  55  ;  injury 
to  by  confiscations,  382,  402  et  seq.; 
bequests  to,  397-398 

Pope,  Sir  Thomas,  48 

Pope,  the,  and  Sanctuary,  55  et  seq.; 
pre- Reformation  loyalty  to,  79 ; 
powers  in  England  before  Refor- 
mation, 80  et  seq. ;  spiritual  and 
temporal  power  in  conflict,  82  ; 
position  as  head  of  Church,  83  et 
seq. ;  rejection  of  his  supremacy, 
90  ;  imprisoned,  94 ;  English  ac- 
ceptance of  his  supremacy,  93-95  ; 
Constantine's  gift  to,  95  ;  wars  of, 

97  ;  temporal  power  of,  97-100, 
103-104  ;  authority  as  Peter's  suc- 
cessor, 90,  99-100,  103 ;  works 
against  character  of,  101-104 ; 
commission  appointed  by,  105  ; 
how  deceived,  idid.;  recommenda- 
tions of  commission,  107  ;  sermon 
against,  109  ;  object  of  attacks  on, 
no;  Erasmus's  attitude  to,  189- 
19O)  I93-I95>  197;  Erasmus's 
satire  on,  202,  and  Jiote ;  refuses 
to  grant  Henry's  divorce,  208,  and 
note 

Powell,  Edward,  theologian,  quoted 

on  papal  supremacy,  85 
Power,   spiritual    and   temporal,    7O) 

72-73,  82  ;  dialogue  on,  73  et  seq., 

98  ;  the  king's,  75 

Praier  and  Complaynte  of  the  Plowe- 
man,  17,  and  note,  223 


458  INDEX 


Prayers,  for  Pope,  i  lo  ;  of  clergy  and 
religious,  131  ;  Sir  Thos.  More  on, 
307  ;  daily,  313  ;  for  the  dead,  399 

Preaching  at  St  Paul's  Cross,  67,  69 ; 
style  of  against  Pope  condemned, 
92  ;  in  parish  churches,  281,  283  ; 
more  important  than  mass,  284- 
285 

"  Prick  song,"  or  part  music,  12,  13 

"  Primer,"  the,  216,  223-224,  286 

Printing,  responsible  for  spread  of 
heresy,  213  ;  religious  works  pre- 
dominate in  earliest,  315-316 

Psalter,  the,  223-224 

Purgatory,   61,    225,   231,   387,   399, 

405.  437 
Pynson,  printer,  298 

Reformation,  impossibility  of  writ- 
ing history  of,  3  ;  revival  of  letters 
not  due  to,  7-8,  15  ;  adverse  effect 
on  learning,  9,  20,  41  et  seq. ; 
English  attitude  to  Pope  prior  to, 
7S-79  ;  share  of  divorce  question 
in,  208,  and  no^e ;  similar  in  Eng- 
land to  Luther's  principles,  231  ; 
meaning,  82,  279  ;  share  of  Wy- 
clitfe  and  Lollards  in,  209  et  seq.; 
effect  upon  church  art,  331  ;  and 
poverty,  358 

Relics,  honour  of,  415  ei  seq.,  429  ei 
seq. 

Religious,  at  universities,  42  et  seq. ; 
State  interference,  61  ;  abuses 
among,  loS,  note;  reputed  quar- 
rels between,  116-117  ;  evils  in 
constitutions,  129;  testimony  to 
moral  character,  137,  note;  Mr. 
Brewer  cited  on,  147 ;  Erasmus 
on,  202 

Religious  teaching,  alleged  neglect  of, 
278  ;  Reformation  not  directly  con- 
nected with,  279  ;  extent  and  char- 
acter, 280  et  seq. ;  nature  and  effect, 
288  et  seq. ;  books  used  by  clergy 
in,  2,0^  et  seq,;  religious  plays,  316 
et  seq. 

Renaissance,  definition  of,  14 ;  in 
England,  ihiJ.;  earlier  than  gene- 
rally supposed,  15 

Restitution,  argued,  125  ;  a  case  in- 
volving, 140 

Reuchlin,  180-181,  184,  186,  187 

Reverence  of  images,  289  et  seq. 

Ridley,  Lancelot,  commentaries  on 
Scriptures,  104,  iii,  and  note,  273- 
274 ;   on  devotion  to  saints,  422- 


423  ;    on  pilgrimages  and  images, 

424 
Roberts,   John,    his  Mtistre  of  sets- 

viatyke  bysshops  of  Ro»ie,  101,  and 

note 
Rogers,   Mr.  Thorold,  cited,    356   et 

seq.,  360-361,  364,  403 
Rome,  classical  revival  in,  203-206  ; 

sack  of,  230  ;  pilgrimages  to,  416 
Roper,  John,  102,  note 
Roper,  Mary  and  Margaret,  37,  note, 

41,  note 
Roy,  Friar,  215,  222 
Rule  of  life,  daily,  286-287 
Rules  of  religious  orders,  suggested 

examination,  129 

Sacrament  of  the  Altar,  Dr.  Rich- 
ard Smythe  on,  216-217,  273,  note ; 
Hytton  on,  220 

Sacraments,  English  reformers  on, 
225,  231  ;  attack  on,  271 

Sadolet,    Cardinal,    107,    108,    7iote, 

439 

Saint-German,  Christopher,  lawyer, 
53,  and  note;  attitude  to  Church, 
53,  115;  cited  on  mortuaries,  53, 
140 ;  on  lands  in  mortmain  and 
benefices,  54-55 ;  on  sanctuary 
and  benefit,  55  ;  on  churchyards, 
60 ;  on  clerical  duties,  ibid.;  on 
need  for  State  interference,  ibid.; 
on  Purgatory,  61  ;  on  State  regu- 
lation of  religious  life,  61  ;  and  of 
matrimony,  62  ;  on  miracles,  ibid.; 
on  other  debateable  questions,  63  ; 
on  tithes,  ibid.,  142;  on  power  of 
clergy,  65 ;  on  king's  headship, 
ibid.;  on  clerical  immunity,  69  ; 
on  holidays,  71  ;  his  Salem  and 
Bizance,  71,  115,  118;  on  posi- 
tion of  clergy  as  individuals,  72; 
controversy  with  More,  \\^  et  seq.; 
attacks  on  clergy,  119  et  seq.;  al- 
leged mercenary  spirit  among 
clergy,  123  ;  on  election  of  abbots, 
129;  on  constitutions  of  religious 
orders,  ibid,;  on  causes  of  dislike 
of  clergy  by  laity,  138  ;  on  indul- 
gences, 435,  440 

Saints,  reverence  of  images  of,  289 
et  seq. ;  amount  of  honour  due  to, 
304,  306,  308  ;  devotion  to,  423, 
antl  note,  43 1  et  seq. 

Salem  and  Bizanee,  Saint-German's 
Dyalogne  of,  71,  1 1 5,  1 18,  note, 
122,  144 


INDEX 


459 


Sanctuary,  difficulty  of  the  subject, 
55  ;  a  danger  to  the  State,  ibid.  ; 
case  of  John  Savage,  56  et  seq.  ; 
Papal  Bull  granted  to  Henry  VII., 
56,  note;  the  subject  examined  by 
Star  Chamber,  58 

Savage,  John,  his  plea  of  sanctuary, 

5^ 
Scaliger,  cited,  166 

Scholars,  poor,  bequests  to,  396 

Screens,  excellence  of  pre-Reforma- 
tion  work,  12 

Scripture,  Holy,  key  of  position  of 
English  reformers,  231  ;  transla- 
tions of,  234,  236  et  seq.;  study  of 
advocated  by  Church,  244,  248, 
275,  note 

See  of  Rome,  supremacy  of,  79  et  seq. 

Selby,  chantries  at,  41 1 

Selling,  Prior  William,  birth  and  edu- 
cation, 24  ;  real  name,  24,  and 
note  ;  studies  at  foreign  universities, 
25  ;  takes  his  degree  in  theology, 
25  ;  industrious  book  collector,  25  ; 
good  work  at  Christchurch,  26  ; 
returns  to  Rome,  26,  and  note ; 
establishes  Greek  at  Christchurch, 
27 ;  as  prior,  27,  and  note;  member 
of  an  embassy  to  the  Pope,  31,  and 
note,  56,  note;  continued  interest 
in  literary  revival,  31  ;  Greek  trans- 
lation, 31  ;  fate  of  his  library,  32  ; 
influence,  33 

Servio  Exhortatorius,  149 

Sermons,  Church,  more  important 
than  the  Mass,  283,  284-285 

Sharpe,  Dr.,  359 

Shrines,  pilgrimages  to,  416  et  seq. 

Simony,  clergy  charged  with,  146 

Slander  and  libel,  jurisdiction  per- 
taining to,  65 

Smith,  Mr.  Toulmin,  on  guilds,  364, 
366,  381 

Smythe  or  Smith,  Dr.  Richard,  216, 
272,  273,  and  7iote 

Social  conditions  before  Reformation, 
351  et  seq.  :  case  of  the  poor,  353 

Sours  Garden,  the,  214,  note 

Sovereignty  of  the  Pope,  97-100,  103- 
104,  107 

Spiritual  power,  temporal  derived 
from,  70 

Spongia,  the,  of  Erasmus,  187  et 
seq. 

Standish,  Dr.  Henry,  on  immunity  of 
clergy,  67  ;  charged  before  convo- 
cation, 67  ;  on  lesser  orders,  68 


Standish,  John,  archdeacon,  234,  248, 
249,  note,  270,  271 

St.  Giorgio,  Venice,  abbot  of,  105 

St.  John  of  Jerusalem,  priory  of,  56 

St.  John  the  Baptist,  head  of,  430 

St.  Paul's  Cross,  preaching  at,  67,  91  ; 
testaments  burnt  at,  245,  256,  and 
note 

St.  Peter,  Catholic  succession  from, 
90,  note ;  vicarship,  99-IOO 

Star  chamber,  58 

State,  jurisdiction  of,  51  ;  right  of 
interference  in  temporalities,  53, 
60-64,  72  ;  legislates  concerning 
mortuaries,  53,  140;  limits  to  State 
interference,  54  ;  power  claimed 
for,  55,  60-64  ;  punishment  by  for 
spiritual  offences,  65  ;  protecting 
power  of,  75  ;  destruction  of  guilds 
by,  380-381 

Stokesley,  William,  34 

Stubbs,  Bishop,  354,  356 

Students,  distress  of  at  university,  46 

Sturmius,  John,  105,  106,  107,  note 

Suffolk,  chantries  in,  407 

Sunday,  legal  status  of,  71 

Superstition,  in  devotion,  293,  297, 
302  ;  condemned,  314 

Supplication  of  Beggars,  the,  213,  221 

Surtees  Society,  publications,  319 

Tailors,  Guild  of,  371 

Taverns,  frequented  by  clergy,  151 

Teaching,  religious.  See  Religious 
teaching 

Temporalities,  right  of  State  inter- 
ference in,  53  et  seq. ;  difference 
between  and  spiritual  jurisdiction, 
72  ;  clearly  defined  in  Spain,  76 

Temporal  power,  derived  from  spiri- 
tual, 70 ;  of  the  Pope,  97-100, 
103-104,  107 

Theologians,  Erasmus's  satire  on, 
201 

Tithes,  the  lay  and  ecclesiastical 
cases,  63-64;  Saint- German  quoted 
on,  142 

Torkington,  Sir  Richard,  rector  of 
Mulbarton,  418 

Towneley  Mysteries,  the,  319 

Tradition   and    English    Reformers, 

231 
Translations,  of  Holy  Scripture,  236 

et  seq. 
Trentals,  123,  124,  138,  note 
Trevelyan,  George  Macaulay,  cited, 

240,  note 


460 


INDEX 


Trinity,  feast  of  at  Compostella,  217 
Trojans,  opponents  of  Greek  study, 

35 

Tunstall,  Bishop,  29,  note,  34,  and 
note,  109,  169,  175,  )iote,  185,  198- 
199,  213,  214,  note,  255,  256 

Tyll.     See  Selling 

Tyndale,  More's  confutation  of,  87- 
88,  118,  119,  136;  charges  clergy 
with  immorality,  145  ;  use  of  word 
congregation  for  church,  173,  note  ; 
attribution  of  Enconium  Moria:  to 
More,  202,  note;  books  prohibited, 
213  ;  English  Testament,  220;  and 
other  books,  220-223  ;  advocates 
liberty,  228  ;  influence,  231  ;  Eng- 
lish Testament  condemned,  236. 
243,  251,  255  et  set].,  276  ;  demand 
for  his  works,  250  ;  birth  and  early 
life,  252  ;  joins  Luther,  252  ;  Lu- 
ther's share  in  his  Testament,  252 
ei  seq.  ;  his  revised  Testament, 
260 ;  More's  examination  of  his 
Testament,  260-270;  on  indulgen- 
ces, 437 

Unity  of  pre-Reformation  belief,  324 
Universities,    effect   of    Reformation 

on,  9,  41  ^/  seq.  ;  monastic  students 

at,  42  et  seq.  ;  poverty  of  students 

at  after  Reformation,  46 
Urban  IIL,  Pope,  sanctuary  grant  of, 

56 
Urbanus  Regius,  cited,  18,  19,  note 
Urswick,  Christopher,  32,  note 

Valla,  Laurence,  96 

Veneration  of  relics,  415,  429  et  seq.  ; 
of  saints,  431-432 

Venetian,  a,  cited  on  attitude  of 
ecclesiastics  to  learning,  37  ;  on 
religious  condition  of  the  English, 
324;  on  beauty  of  English  churches, 
332 

Venice,  Aldine  press  at,  160 

Venn,  J.,  historian  of  Gonville  Col- 
lege, quoted,  43-45 

Vicarages,  appropriations  of  cancelled, 
55 


Vives,  Ludovico,  scholar,  36,  note,  yj, 
41,  note 

Von  Hutten,  Ulrich,  tract  on  Con- 
stantine's  donation  to  the  Pope, 
96  ;  attacks  on  Erasmus,  186  et  seq. 

Warham,  Archbishop,  36,  and  note, 

69,  112, 160,  i6i,  162,  168,  215,  258 
Waylande,  John,  printer,  232 
Welsh,  vernacular  devotional   books 

for,  311,  note 
Wesselius,  214 

Westacre,  Augustinian  priory  of,  43 
Westminster,   the  abbot   of,    58-59 ; 

pardon  purchased  for,   124  ;   doles 

at,  132 
Wey,  William,  itineraries  of,  416 
Whitford,  Richard,  83,  232-233,  283, 

305,  312 

Wills,  ecclesiastical  administration  of, 
65  ;  pre-Reformation,  387  et  seq. ; 
bequests  for  pilgrimages,  416 

Winchcombe,  abbot  of,  6"] 

Winchester,  wall  paintings  of  Lady 
Chapel  at,  II  ;  fair  at,  379 

Wolffgang,  printer,  309 

W^olsey,  Cardinal,  attitude  to  revival 
of  learning,  36  ;  hears  the  Savage 
sanctuary  case,  58 ;  upholds  rights 
of  Crown,  68  ;  opposes  temporal 
punishments  of  clergy,  ibid.  ;  pre- 
sent at  burning  of  books,  256,  note 

Worcester,  Tiptoft,  Earl  of,  23,  and 
note 

W^orcester,  William,  antiquary,  26,  27 

Work,  definite,  lack  of  among  clergy, 
137,  note 

Worke  entytled  of  the  olde  God  and 
the  tiezv,  102,  and  note 

Wycliffe,  share  in  Reformation,  209 
et  seq. ;  books  prohibited,  214 ; 
origin  of  Wyclififite  Scriptures,  237, 
247 

Wyer,  Robert,  printer,  285 

Yorkshire,  chantries  in,  411 

ZwiNGLE,  books  of  prohibited,  213- 
214 


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A  Popular  Edition. 

In  One  Volume,  Demy  8vo,  Cloth,  Gilt  Top,  price  los.  6d.  Net,  pp.  528. 

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Penrp  tbe  €iai)tb  and  m 

€ndli$D  monasteries. 

(Of  which  Six  Editions  at  24s.  have  already  been  sold.) 


Contents 

CHAP. 


The  Dawn  of  Difficulties. 
II.  Cardinal  Wolsey  and   the   Monas- 
teries. 

III.  The  Holy  Maid  of  Kent. 

IV.  The  Friars  Observant  and  the  Car- 

thusians. 
V.  The   Visitation    of   Monasteries    in 

1535-36. 
VI.  The   Parliament   of  1536   and   the 
suppression  of  the  Lesser  Monas- 
teries. 
VII.  The    "  Comperta   Monastica"   and 
other  charges  against  the  Monks. 
VIII.  Thomas  Crumwell,  the  King's  Vicar- 
General. 
IX.  The  chief  accusers  of  the  Monks — 
Layton,    Legh,    Ap    Rice,    and 
London. 


X.  The  Dissolution  of  the  Lesser  Mon- 
asteries. 

XI.  The  Rising  in  Lincolnshire. 

XII.  The  Pilgrimage  of  Grace. 

XIII.  The  Second  Northern  Rising. 

XIV.  Dissolution  by  Attainder. 
XV.  The  Suppression  of  Convents. 

XVI.   Fall  of  the  Friars. 

XVII.   Progress  of  the   General   Suppres- 
sion. 
XVIII.  The  Three  Benedictine  Abbots. 

XIX.  The  Monastic  Spoils. 
XX.  The  Spending  of  the  Spoils. 

XXI.  The     Ejected     Monks    and     their 
Pensions. 

XXII.  Some     Results     of    the     Suppres- 
sion. 


Appendix:  Accounts  of  the  Augmentation  Office,  &c. 
General  Index. 


Some  Press  Notices. 


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of  an  old  work  by  such  a  pioneer  of  historical  truth  as  Dr.  Gasquet  with  renewed  con- 
fidence, for  the  next  best  thing  to  a  new  work  from  such  a  hand  is  a  carefully  revised  and 
cheaper  edition  of  an  old  one." 

Cbarcta  Times. — "Dr.  Gasquet's  work  has  won  for  itself  so  secure  a  position  that 
it  is  superfluous  to  point  out  its  merits  afresh,  but  the  author  in  the  preface  to  the  new 
edition  calls  attention  to  certain  alterations  necessitated  by  the  publication  by  Dr.  James 
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now  been  arranged  in  volumes,  consequently  a  very  considerable  re-arrangement  of 
references  has  been  rendered  necessary,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  consultation  of  the 
original  documents.  This  popular  edition  will  be  greatly  appreciated  by  the  students 
of  this  period  of  England's  ecclesiastical  history." 

Catbolic  Book  Notes. — "  .A  standard  authority,  if  not  a  classic  ...  we  congratulate 
author  and  publisher  on  its  production  in  one  handsome  volume.  We  anticipate  a  large 
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classes  of  our  schools." 

London:  JOHN  C.  NIMMO,  14  King  William  Street,  Strand. 

I 


New  Work  on  English  Monastic  History. 

In  Two  Volumes,  Demy  Svo,  Cloth,  price  2 is.  Net. 

tfte 

Cnglisl)  Black  iHonks  of  $t  Benedict 

fl  Sketch  of  tbcir  Ristorp  from  tbc  comina  of  St.  Jiuaustinc 
to  tl)C  present  Dap. 

By  the  Rev.  ETHELRED  L.  TAUNTON. 

Contents. 

VOLUME  THE  SECOND. 


VOLUME  THE  FIRST. 

CHAP. 

I.  The  Coming  of  the  Monks. 
II.  The  Norman  Lanfranc. 

III.  The  Benedictine  Constitution, 

IV.  The  Monk  in  the  World. 
V.  The  Monk  in  his  Monastery 


CHAP. 

XI    The  Benedictine  Mission. 
XII.  Douai  and  Dieuleward. 

XIII.  The  Renewal  of  the  English  Con- 

gregation. 

XIV.  Dom  Leander  and  his  Mission. 


VI.  Women  under  the  Rule.  XV.  Chronicles  of  the  Congregation.   II. 

VII.  Chronicles  of  the  Congregation.     I.     i       XVI.  St.  Gregory's  Monastery. 
VIII.  The  Downfall.  I     XVII.  St.  Lawrence's  Monastery. 


IX.  John  Fecknam,  Abbat. 
X.  The  State  of  English  Catholics,  1559- 
1601. 
Appendix  :    The   Consuetudinary   of  St. 
Augustine's,  Canterbury. 


XVIII.  St.  Edmund's  Monastery. 
XIX.  St.  Malo,  Lambspring,  and  Cam- 
brai. 
XX.  Other  Benedictine  Houses.     Deni- 
zen and  Alien. 


Some  Press  Notices. 

Saturday  Review. — "  On  the  whole,  it  would  be  difficult  within  the  limits  that  the  author  has 
set  for  himself  to  write  a  more  interesting  book.  We  recommend,  more  especially  to  the  general 
reader,  the  three  chapters  on  the  life  of  a  monk  in  the  world  and  in  his  monastery,  and  that  describ- 
ing the  life  of  women  under  the  rule." 

Literature. — "We  are  struck  with  the  skill  with  which  he  has  mastered  the  details  of  a  some- 
what complicated  story,  and  the  clear  way  he  has  set  it  down  for  the  benefit  of  his  readers." 

Eng:lisli  Historical  Review. — "  Here,  for  the  first  time,  the  story  of  the  Benedictine  mission  of 
1603  is  fully  told  in  English  ;  in  this  story  the  central  figure  is  Dom  Augustine  Baker,  the  true  author 
of  the  '  Apostolatus,'  wtio,  being  professed  by  the  aged  Buckley,  the  last  survivor  of  Westminster, 
claimed  the  inheritance  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  original  congregation,  and  the  power,  by 
professing  others,  to  hand  on  the  inheritance  to  posterity.  The  story  of  the  English  Benedictine  con- 
gregation in  its  settlements  abroad,  and  finally  in  its  settlements  at  home,  is  very  skilfully  told,  in  a 
pleasant,  popular  style." 

Literary  World. — "The  story  of  the  English  Benedictines  is  one  that  will  be  read  with  sympathy 
and  even  admiration  by  the  instructed  Protestant.  Curiously  enough  the  history  of  the  Order — not 
the  exact  word,  but  no  better  offers — has  a  striking  affinity  with  the  principles  of  Congregationalism. 
The  strength  of  the  Order  was  that  it  consisted  of  independent  homes,  and  was  not  like  most  fraterni- 
ties, a  great  whole  subdivided  into  communities.  Upon  this  Father  Taunton  again  and  again  insists, 
and  his  view  is  indisputable.  Of  the  two  volumes  before  us  the  first  will  be  more  generally  interesting 
to  Englishmen,  but  it  may  be  well  to  prepare  our  readers  for  its  perusal  by  saying  that  the  almost 
patronising  style  of  the  beginning  is  not  long  continued.  We  feared  at  first  that  the  author  was  going 
to  talk  down  to  us  in  pity  for  our  ignorance,  and  were  accordingly  prepared  to  resent  his  impertinence. 
A  very  few  pages  onward  and  we  yielded  ourselves  willinglv  to  his  pleasant  instruction.  .  .  .  A  good 
book,  which  we  can  heartily  recommend  to  the  open-minded  reader." 

Liverpool  Post. — "Two  large  and  well-printed  volumes  contain  what  the  writer  modestly 
describes  as  a  'sketch  '  of  the  Benedictine  Order  in  England  from  the  coming  of  Augustine  in  the  sixth 
century  up  to  the  present  time.  The  work  is  something  more  than  a  theological  history.  It  is  in  one 
aspect  a  history  of  English  society  during  fifteen  hundred  years,  for  the  Benedictines  were  ever  closely 
in  touch  with  the  people  among  whom  they  laboured.  Mr.  Taunton  is  not  an  ecclesiastical  zealot, 
and  he  writes  with  admirable  impartiality,  as  witness  his  outspoken  condemnation  of  the  intrigues  of 
Rome  and  the  machinations  of  the  Jesuits  in  England  during  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and  James. 
Hence  his  opinions  on  such  a  question  as  the  social  consequences  to  England  of  the  closing  of  the 
monasteries  is  deserving  of  greater  weight." 

Glasgow  Herald. — "In  these  two  portly  volumes  Mr.  Taunton  furnishes  us  with  a  very  full 
history  of  the  English  Benedictines,  describing  it  as  'a  tribute  of  the  affection  and  esteem  which  I, 
an  outsider,  have  for  the  English  monks.'  There  is  doubtless  room  for  such  a  work,  and  it  must  be 
said  that  Mr.  Taunton  has  brought  to  his  task  abundant  enthusiasm  and  much  painstaking  research. 
.  .  .  We  cordially  welcome  it  for  its  accumulation  of  valuable  historical  materials,  and  for  the  author's 
industry  we  have  nothing  but  praise." 

London:  JOHN  C.  NIMMO,  14  King  William  Street,  Strand. 

2 


Also  by  F.  A,  OASQUET,  IXD. 

In  One  Volume,  Demy  8vo,  408  Pages,  Cloth,  price  I3s.  Net. 

CDe  Old  Cnglisb  Bible,  and  otbcr  essaps. 

Contents. 


CHAP.  CHAP. 


I.  Notes    on    Mediasval    Monastic 

Libraries. 
II.  The  Monastic  Scriptorium. 

III.  A  Forgotten  English  Preacher. 

IV.  ThePre-Reformation  English  Bible(i). 
V.  The  Pre- Reformation  English  Bible(2). 

VI.  Religious  Instruction  in  England  dur- 
ing the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth 
Centuries. 


VII.  A  Royal  Christmas  in  the  Fifteenth 
Century. 
VIII.  The  Canterbury  Claustral  School  in 
the  Fifteenth  Century. 
IX.  The  Note-books  of  William  Wor- 
cester,  a  Fifteenth-Century  Anti- 
quary. 
X.   Hampshire  Recusants.    With  a  com- 
plete Index. 


Some  Press  Notices. 

Times. — "  Full  of  the  learning  and  research  which  Dr.  Gasquet  has  made  so  peculiarly 
his  own." 

Atheiiivnni. — "Whatever  Dr.  Gasquet  writes  is  of  interest,  and  thanks  are  due  to 
him  for  these  essays.  .  .  .  Full  of  rare  information,  and  real  contributions  to  history." 

By  the  late  MISS  MANNING. 

In  Crown  8vo,  with  an  Introduction  by  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Hutton,  B.D., 

and  Twenty-five  Illustrations  by  John  Jellicoe  and  Herbert 

Railton,  price  6s.  Cloth  Elegant,  Gilt  Top. 

ZU  Pouseboia  of  Sir  CDos.  more. 

Some  Press  Notices. 

Spectator. — "  A  delightful  book.  .  .  .  Twenty-five  illustrations  by  John  Jellicoe  and 
Herbert  Railton  show  off  the  book  to  the  best  advantage." 

Cirapliic. — "  A  pictiu-e,  not  merely  of  great  charm,  but  of  infinite  value  in  helping  the 
many  to  understand  a  famous  Englishman  and  the  times  in  which  he  lived." 

Literary  World. — "  A  charming  reprint.  .  .  .  Every  feature  of  the  pictorial  work  is 
in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  the  whole." 

Scotsman. — "  This  clever  work  of  the  historical  imagination  has  gone  through  several 
editions,  and  is  one  of  the  most  successful  artistic  creations  of  its  kind." 

Oiasgo-w  Herald. — "An  extremely  beautiful  reprint  of  the  late  Miss  Manning's 
quaint  and  charming  work. " 

Sketch. — "  In  the  front  rank  of  the  gift-books  of  the  season  is  this  beautiful  and  very 
cleverly  illustrated  reprint  of  a  work  which  has  lasting  claims  to  popularity." 

.Magazine  of  Art. — "The  grace  and  beauty  of  the  late  Miss  Manning's  charming 
work,  'The  Household  of  Sir  Thomas  More,'  has  been  greatly  enhanced  by  the  new 
edition  now  put  forth  by  Mr.  John  C.  Nimmo.  .  .  .  This  remarkable  work  is  not  to  be 
read  without  keen  delight." 

Academy. — "It  is  illustrated  cleverly  and  prettily,  and  tastefully  bound,  so  as  to 
make  an  attractive  gift-book." 

Liverpool  Post. — "We  welcome  the  tasteful  reprint  with  its  artistic  illustrations  by 
John  Jellicoe  and  Herbert  Railton,  and  its  helpful  introduction  by  the  Rev.  W.  H. 
Hutton." 


London  :  JOHN  C.  NIMMO,  14  King  William  Street,  Strand. 

3 


NEW  ILLUSTRATED  EDITION  IN  SIXTEEN  VOLUMES. 

Extra  Crown  8vo,  Brown  Cloth,  Gilt  Top,  price  53.  per  Volume  Net ;  also  in 

Special  Binding,  Ruby  Cloth,  Flat  Back,  Gilt  Top,  price  £4  Net, 

the  Set  of  16  Vols.  only. 

THE  REV.  S.  BARING-GOULD'S 

£iDCS  of  m  Saints.  """  UToaj  r,.c  y^r. 

New  Edition,  Revised,  with  Introduction  and  Additional  Lives  of  English  Martyrs, 
Cornish  and  Welsh  Saints,  and  Full  Indices  to  the  Entire  Work.  Illustrated  by 
over  400  Engravings. 


Contents  of  the  Volumes. 

JANUARY:     170    Biographies,    with    45    :    JULY:  223  Biographies,  with  34  lUustra- 
Illustrations  (Vol.  i).  I  tions  (Vols.  7  and  8). 

FEBRUARY:    174   Biographies,   with  29       AUGUST:  215  Biographies,  with  39  Illus- 
Illustrations  (Vol.  2).  j  trations  (Vol.  9). 

MARCH  :  187  Biographies,  with  42  lUus- 
trations  (Vol.  3). 

APRIL:    141   Biographies,  with  24  Illus- 
trations (Vol.  4). 

MAY  :    153  Biographies,  with  26  Illustra- 
tions (Vol.  5). 

JUNE:  200  Biographies,  with  39  Illustra- 
tions (Vol.  6). 


SEPTEMBER:  210  Biographies,  with  34 

Illustrations  (Vol.  10). 
OCTOBER:     220    Biographies,    with    28 

Illustrations  (Vols.  11  and  12). 
NOVEMBER :    185  Biographies,  with  47 

Illustrations  (Vols.  13  and  14). 
DECEMBER:    146   Biographies,  with  22 

Illustrations  (Vol.  15). 


APPENDIX  VOLUME. 

Additional  Biographies  of  English  Martyrs,  Cornish  and  Welsh  Saints,  Genealogies  of 
Saintly  Families,  and  two  Indices  to  the  entire  work  (Vol.  16). 


Some  Press  Notices. 

Daily  Chronicle. — "When  it  is  remembered  that  in  these  two  volumes  (January  and  February; 
the  biographies  of  more  than  four  hundred  saints  arc  to  be  found,  and  that  in  every  case  the 
authorities  from  which  they  are  derived  are  set  forth ;  that  in  the  Introduction  the  reader  is  furnished 
with  a  succinct  account  of  the  literature  of  the  subject  which  is  the  best  resutni  that  we  have  in 
English ;  that  errors  in  the  previous  edition  are  not  left  uncorrected — it  will  be  seen  how  much  is  to 
be  expected  from  this  new  issue  of  Mr.  Baring-Gould's  wonderful  work,  and  how  much  will  be  found 
in  the  sixteen  volumes  which  will  be  required  to  complete  it.  .  .  .  No  student  of  history — to  go  no 
further — can  dispense  with  such  a  valuable  book  of  reference.  There  is  nothing  like  it  in  our 
language." 

Standard. — "  The  earlier  volumes  of  the  new  edition  are  before  us,  and  even  a  cursory  examina- 
tion is  enough  to  show  that  the  work  has  been  thoroughly  revised.  .  .  .  The  book  is  of  real  value, 
since  it  is  written  with  scholarly  care,  imaginative  vision,  and  a  happy  union  of  charity  and  courage." 

Guardian. — "Whoever  reads  the  more  important  lives  in  the  sixteen  volumes  of  which  this  new 
edition  is  to  consist,  will  be  introduced  to  a  region  of  which  historians  for  the  most  part  tell  him  little, 
and  yet  one  that  throws  constant  light  upon  some  of  the  obscurest  points  of  ordinary  histories.  For 
this,  and  for  the  pleasure  and  profit  thence  derived,  he  will  have  to  thank  Mr.  Baring-Gould." 

Scotsman. — "Mr.  Baring-Gould,  Anglican  priest  though  he  be,  fulfils  the  promise  of  his 
origin.Tl  edition  in  so  far  as  he  does  not  obtrude  either  prejudice  or  sectarianism  into  his  record  of 
these  Saints." 

British  Review  and  National  Observer.  — "The  new  edition  of  Mr.  Baring-Gould's 
familiar  work  may  well  be  called  monumental,  both  on  account  of  its  size,  and  the  variety  and 
completeness  of  the  information  to  be  found  in  it." 

Notes  and  Queries. — "  It  is  impossible  to  mention  the  various  sources  whence  have  been 
drawn  the  illustratinns,  which  will  render  this  work,  to  those  to  whom  the  subject  appeals,  the  most 
acceptable,  as  it  is  certainly  the  handsomest,  of  existing  editions." 

Weekly  5un. — "We  unhesitatingly  commend  it  as  well  to  the  lover  of  media:valism  as  the 
student  who  must  have  at  hand  encyclopscdic  volumes  of  reference.  No  library  that  aims  at  being 
comprehensive  can  .afford  to  be  without  it.  No  student  of  ecclesiastical  and  cathedral  antiquities 
can  neglect  it  if  he  wishes  to  make  a  successful  study  of  his  particular  subject." 

Christian  World. — "The  new  edition  is  tastefully  got  up,  and  is  a  worthy  setting  of  a  great 
literary  enterprise.     The  'Lives  of  the  Saints'  is  a  human  story  of  unfading  interest. '' 

London:  JOHN  C.  NIMMO,  14  King  William  Street,  Strand. 

4 


^'^«^'?' 


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^v 


